Members of the Florida delegation reacted to the collapse of Republican efforts in the U.S. Senate to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s federal health-care law.
While President Donald Trump is currently trying to rally Senate Republicans--including trying to flip U.S. Sen. Mike Lee’s, R-Utah, vote--to back U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel, R-Ky., bill to repeal and replace Obama’s law, the GOP has failed to produce a majority on the matter. The Republicans also do not have enough votes in the Senate to repeal the law.
U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., part of the House leadership as senior deputy majority whip, ripped into Senate Republicans on Wednesday.
“The Senate has failed the American people and abandoned voters who were promised that they would repeal and replace the disastrous Obamacare," Ross said. “The House did its job. We honored our pledge and passed legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare in early May. There is no need to sugar coat this: I’m very upset with the Senate.
“Senators have now wasted seven months doing nothing,” Ross added. “We need senators that want to help this president and keep their promises. The American people are sick of the excuses from senators. I’m sick of the excuses. It’s amazing to me that senators are arguing that circumstances have changed, since all 52 of them voted for a full repeal just last year. The only thing that has changed is President Trump will sign it into law.
“We have been given the perfect opportunity to fulfill our promises to the American people, and the House has been upholding our end time-and-time again. My advice is that the Senate should stay in D.C. all of August, September, October and however long it takes to pass legislation that repeals and replaces Obamacare,” he continued. “If they don’t repeal and replace Obamacare, like they promised and were voted to do, they are going back on their word and have some serious explaining to do when they go back home and face those who sent them to Washington to protect and help them. They will be held accountable. When premiums and deductibles continue to skyrocket, when more and more insurers flee the exchange, when increased health-care taxes and mandates shut down local businesses and leave Americans with nothing to keep their families afloat, the Senate will be taking the blame. Not the House, and not the president.
“After four elections cycles and seven years of promising to repeal and replace Obamacare, it’s time for the Senate to act,” Ross said before taking his message to voters. “Call your senators and tell them to honor their promises and get this done—now.”
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats from the Sunshine State weighed in on Republican efforts collapsing in the Senate.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., called on the GOP majority to work with the Democrats to improve the current law.
“The resistance and compassion won out. It is now more clear than ever that the American people do not want less health-care coverage at a higher cost, all so millionaires and billionaires can get huge tax breaks,” she said on Tuesday. “President Trump now says he will ‘allow Obamacare to fail', rather than work with Democrats to update and improve it. I will continue to stand with the millions of caring, conscientious and responsible Americans who bravely banded together to beat back this political savagery.
“We must make health-care reform about improving Americans' health, not hurting millions of people with mean-spirited legislation that will leave millions without health-care coverage,” Wasserman Schultz added. “It is now time for Democrats and Republicans to come together to address the problems with the Affordable Care Act. The American people have made it clear that they believe access to quality, affordable health-care should remain a right and not return to a time when it was a privilege only for those who could afford it."
“The reason that Trumpcare keeps falling apart is because it is cruel. It is simply not realistic to gut programs like Medicaid or end the essential health benefits that tens of millions of people rely upon. Trumpcare puts partisan grandstanding ahead of realistic reforms,” said U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., on Tuesday.
“Even after this failure, Congressional Republicans briefly went back to the ‘repeal-only’ approach that would strip health-care coverage from 32 million people,” Hastings continued. “Given that they have spent the last seven years trashing the Affordable Care Act, it is baffling to me that those pushing repeal haven’t learned a thing. Just hours after announcing this new strategy, the ‘repeal-only’ approach has already fallen apart.
“There is no question that improvements to health-care need to be made,” Hastings added. :"Reforms can be enacted in a matter of weeks, if not days. But when bipartisanship is used as a threat, as Senate Majority Leader McConnell has done in the past, it underscores how the Republican Party isn’t interested in working across the aisle even as people are asking for help.Democrats won’t let the Republican Party destroy healthcare, but we will work together to improve the system. Speaker Ryan and Majority Leader McConnell should work with both Democrats and Republicans to draft a bill that works for all Americans.”
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