July 19, 2017

Trump Demands GOP Senators “Keep Their Promise” to Repeal Obamacare

He threatened one undecided Republican: “Look, he wants to remain a senator, right?”

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

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President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded that Republican senators remain in Washington for the August recess until an agreement is reached on a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Health Care. 

“We can repeal, but we should repeal and replace, and we shouldn’t leave town until this is complete, until this bill is on my desk,” Trump said at a lunch meeting with senators at the White House. “Until we all go over to the Oval Office, I’ll sign it and we can celebrate for the American people.” 

His return to a repeal-and-replace proposal marks the third position Trump has taken on health care this week, after initially calling for straight repeal on Monday and then a plan to intentionally allow the health care law to “fail on its own” the following day.

At one point during Wednesday’s meeting, Trump gestured to Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who was sitting next to him, and said, “Look, he wants to remain a senator, doesn’t he?” Heller is considered one of the most vulnerable senators up for reelection in 2018. After initially rejecting a version of the GOP health care bill, Heller has not committed to voting a particular way on proposals this week.

Trump added, “Any senator who votes against starting debate is really telling America that you’re fine with Obamacare.”

The president announced the meeting in a pair of tweets Wednesday, urging Republican senators to fulfill the party’s long-held promise to undo his predecessor’s signature health care law. After it became clear that the repeal-and-replace legislation did not have the votes for passage, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on Tuesday he would introduce a proposal to dismantle Obamacare without a replacement plan. The measure is expected to fail, with three Republican senators—all of whom are women—quickly announcing they would oppose it from moving forward.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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