WASHINGTON, D.C.— House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) joined Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” this morning to discuss House Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace Obamacare and said he was “very confident” in the ability of Congress to work with President Trump to repeal and replace the failed law. The Whip also praised the President for his unifying speech celebrating America’s greatness, and criticized the Democrats who refused to stand for those shared ideals.
On Congress working with President Trump:
“We’ve been working with the President for weeks now since he’s been president–even before, during the transition–on how to repeal and replace Obamacare, how to lower taxes, something else he talked about which will really jumpstart our economy and create more jobs. We’ve already had a few bills put on his desk that he’s signed. He referenced the Stream Buffer Rule, where we saved about 70,000 coal miner jobs. So he’s really been very busy working with us in Congress, which has been very refreshing because we didn’t have that kind of working relationship with President Obama. So President Trump has been very hands-on already, making sure he’s working with us so that we can get bills on his desk to get this country back on track.”
On Obamacare:
“There’s no one bill that anybody could write on their own that’s going to get 218 votes to pass because you’ve got to have a lot of other people with different ideas. But the good news is, we’re talking about those ideas–and there are a lot of good ones out there–but at the end of the day, we have to come together with a bill that’s going to pass the House and pass the Senate and get to the President’s desk that he signs, and we’re going to do that. We’re doing it in the next few weeks.”
“There are millions of people on Obamacare I hear from all the time. In my own district in southeast Louisiana we constantly hear from people who are on Obamacare and don’t like it. It doesn’t work for them, it’s too expensive. When you have a family that sent me a note the other day saying they have an $11,000 deductible, it really doesn’t work for their family. And what President Trump talked about last night is you shouldn’t have to get permission from the federal government to buy a plan that works for you; you should be able to make that choice on your own, and that’s what we’re going to do in this bill. It’s complicated because it deals with people’s personal lives, but that’s why we’re meeting with not only members of Congress, we’re talking to families, we’re talking to doctors, we’re talking to hospitals. We want this to work well with a transition so that people can actually have a plan that they can buy that’s lower at cost, focused on lowering the cost, and increasing access.”
On the partisan displays of Democrats during the address:
“That shows that they really don’t get what the American people just went through over the last few months of a very contentious election, but the American people made a loud and clear message that they want change, they want a different approach to running Washington and want Washington actually listening to them. What you saw was a very unifying, bipartisan speech, but you saw Democrats sitting down when President Trump said ‘we need to stop terrorists from coming into the United States.’ How can you sit down during that message?”
On the unifying message President Trump delivered:
“He said ‘we want to bring jobs back to America.’ He mentioned Harley Davidson specifically–great story–said ‘they’re not even asking for special help, but I am.’ What we saw was a leader for once. Look, I’ve been here for eight and a half years, I have never seen an American president stand at that podium until last night, standing up for America. That’s what’s been missing for so long, not just here domestically, but all around the world, saying we’re going to defeat ISIS.”
###