Senator Mike Lee: President Trump Has A Legitimate Gripe, We Should Have Passed Healthcare Reform
“The President has a legitimate gripe with the fact we haven’t done this. We should have gotten it months ago, repealed Obamacare… we have to actually do it. We have been campaigning for 7 years, we are now at that point where we actually have to pass it.”
—Senator Mike Lee on President Trump having a legitimate gripe with republicans for not passing healthcare reform
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) joined Brian Kilmeade to discuss why he agrees President Trump is right to be frustrated with Congress for not passing health care reform. However, he goes on to say why he has concerns about the President wanting to use reconciliation and a simple 51 vote majority to pass healthcare and tax reform but believes Congress only has themselves to blame for not pushing forward with reform. The Senator was also very adamant the President needs to pull America out of the Paris climate accords because it’s his belief that the deal is bad for America.
Plus, Senator Lee discusses his new book “Written Out of History: The Forgotten Founders Who Fought Big Government”
Watch here:
Senator Lee on the Senate moving forward on healthcare reform
(Kilmeade) Are you guys moving forward?
(LEE) We are trying, we are doing the best job we can but we have to do it, we have to do more, we have to actually do it. We have been campaigning for 7 years, we are now at that point where we actually have to pass it. What passed the House of Representatives isn’t what’s going to pass the Senate.
Lee on President Trump tweeting “The U.S. Senate should switch to 51 votes, immediately, and get Healthcare and TAX CUTS approved, fast and easy,” & why the Senate needs to stop taking time off and pass tax reform and healthcare reform
(LEE) I have concerns with it. I share the President’s concerns however. Look, the President has a legitimate gripe with the fact we haven’t done this. We should have gotten it months ago, repealed Obamacare and that’s what prompted this tweet and it’s understandable. I think the true culprit here is not in fact the senate rules but the senate schedule. We are taking recesses too often. Sometimes for the weekend sometimes for the week, sometimes longer. We shouldn’t be doing that…. I have been arguing to my colleagues for months and there are a growing number of us in the senate making similar arguments that we need to work longer hours, we need to work weekends, we need to do this for quite a while until we get tax reform and Obamacare done.
Lee on the Senate not having the votes right now to pass healthcare reform
(LEE) We don’t have the votes right now for what the House passed, that’s for sure but we have been working on this for months now. We have been working on this in earnest in dealing with what comes next after the House passed bill and I think we are in a position where we could get something done in the next couple of months. I would like to see us get it passed by the end of July.
Lee on President Trump giving congress a deadline to pass healthcare reform
(LEE) The President can continue to encourage us to do this and to say look, you’ve got to get this done, give us a deadline by which he would like to see it done. I think it would be reasonable for him to say I would really like you to get this done by the end of July and if you cant get it done by the end of July, don’t recess during the month of August.
Lee on James Comey testifying in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee and not the Judiciary Committee
(LEE) I would love to have him come to both committees, we had oversight over him and if he has more to say we would love to have him come before both committees. My concern is very often those hearings are classified completely whether they need to be or not, they are often held behind closed doors. If he is going to be testifying in front of them and only they get to see it, that’s of even greater concern. Now if they have a public hearing and everybody can come and listen, I am not as concerned as I would otherwise be.
