Congressional GOP debates ObamaCare replacement: 'That's going to be called TrumpCare'

Congressional Republicans were divided in a closed-door meeting Thursday over how to best proceed with their pledge to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, according to a recording of the session first documented in a Washington Post report Friday afternoon. The recording was sent anonymously to the Post and several other news outlets, including Politico.

The lawmakers worried the repeal process is moving too quickly and debated how to nix the parts of ObamaCare the GOP finds most objectionable without spiking the price of care, adding to the national debt, or leaving millions of Americans without coverage. "We're telling those people that we're not going to pull the rug out from under them," said Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) in a plea for a measured approach, "and if we do this too fast, we are in fact going to pull the rug out from under them."

"We'd better be sure that we're prepared to live with the market we've created" with the eventual replacement plan, cautioned Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.). "That's going to be called TrumpCare. Republicans will own that lock, stock and barrel, and we'll be judged in the election less than two years away." Rep. John Faso (R-N.Y.) expressed worry that including a measure removing federal funding from Planned Parenthood in the repeal bill could prove to be "a gigantic political trap," perhaps even one undercut by a hypothetical "tweet from the president [saying], 'We should protect Planned Parenthood.'"

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up