Trump defers push for health plan

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump is deferring his push for a Republican health care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, taking it on the road as 2020 campaign issue rather than trying to pass legislation on Capitol Hill even his own party shunned.

Trump's latest tweets punted the promise of a new GOP bill, which ran into resistance from Republicans in Congress.

They encouraged him to focus instead on bipartisan health care changes they could accomplish with Democrats -- including lowering prescription drug prices -- rather than an overhaul of the "Obamacare" law thus far proving futile. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made it clear Republicans should instead spend their time attacking the Democrats' "Medicare for All" proposals.

Trump's shift -- he tweeted Congress will vote on a GOP plan after the elections "when Republicans hold the Senate & win back the House" -- makes it clear the health care debate will be left for voters to decide during the race for the White House.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday that Trump "wants to talk about the principles."

"He wants to work with Congress in order to come up with the right health care plan," Sanders said.

Republicans have been speaking publicly and privately to Trump since he surprised them last week with an unexpected pledge the GOP will be "the party of health care." They don't have a comprehensive proposal to replace the ACA and had no big plans to unveil one.

Trump's Monday night admission a health care vote would not happen until after the elections came after he heard from lawmakers it wasn't the right time to pivot to the issue, said a person familiar with the conversations who was not authorized to speak publicly.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans were relieved. The No. 2 Republican, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, said the president "has some big ideas and, to his credit, wants to solve problems."

But Thune said, "you run into that wall of reality," of a divided Congress with Democrats in control of the House, which requires bipartisanship.

Trump's effort to repeal former President Barack Obama's 2010 health care law narrowly failed in the Senate in 2017. And while Republicans gained Senate seats last fall, GOP senators -- particularly those up for re-election next year -- weren't looking for another fight over the law.

Health care, especially protections for people with pre-existing conditions, resonates with voters and helped Democrats in the November elections.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump will "hold Americans hostage through 2020" on an issue affecting millions of people. He said when Trump "insists he has a magic plan that we can see if only the American people re-elect him," it isn't true.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said Democrats' health care battle with Trump is "a values fight."

Unveiling a plan for a Medicare-like public option to be offered under the Affordable Care Act, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., called the president's tweeting "a classic Trump mis-direction."

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said Trump has failed to deliver on a promise for quality, affordable health care for everybody.

"His record is going to be very clear as he runs," said Bennet. Republicans don't have a plan besides trying to "blow up" the ACA, he said.

According to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 115,000 midterm voters nationwide, nearly 4 in 10 Democratic voters identified health care as the most important among a list of key issues. A Quinnipiac University poll last week found 55% of Americans supporting the improvement and not the replacement of the nation's health care system.