On this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. William Cassidy (R-LA) said if Republicans vote for a straight Obamacare repeal without a replacement in place, it will betray “President Trump’s campaign pledges.”
Partial transcript as follows:
WALLACE: And then there is the idea that President Trump offered in a tweet a few days ago, and let’s put this up on the screen, “if Republican senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately repeal and then replace at a later date.” What you think of that?
CASSIDY: A nonstarter. I’ll tell you, there will be uncertainty in the insurance markets. Premiums will rise for middle-class families. It gives all the power to people who actually don’t believe in President Trump’s campaign pledges, who actually don’t want to continue to cover and care for pre-existing conditions and to lower premiums. It gives them the stronger hand. I think it’s wrong. I think it betrays President Trump’s campaign pledges.
WALLACE: So I come away fromnonstarter this, senator, thinking that — that repeal and replace is in real trouble.
CASSIDY: In the current pathway, it has been. And I know I sound like a broken record. We should go back to conservative principles where we devolve power to the states and to the patients allowing them to make the patients — the best decision for them.
WALLACE: But I guess what I’m asking is, if you look at a rewritten — and I understand you haven’t seen it all — but what you’ve heard about. I mean there’s nobody who’s more clued in on this than you are in the Senate. If you look at what McConnell is talking about, you look at what Cruz is talking about, forget Kennedy — Cassidy-Collins for a moment. How much trouble is repeal and replace in?
CASSIDY: If you’re only talking about the draft plan, clearly it’s not going to pass. Ten senators have said they would not vote for it. On the other hand, every time they come up with an iteration that becomes more conservative in the sense of giving power back to states, we move a little bit closer to passage. So if we continue in that pathway, I do think we come up with both a bill that passes and one that fulfills President Trump’s campaign pledges.
WALLACE: Does this get passed by the end of the month?
CASSIDY: I don’t know that.
WALLACE: Do you — you want to put odds on it?
CASSIDY: I would probably put that as 50/50. I do think we have to do something for market stabilization, otherwise people who are paying premiums of $20,000, $30,000 and $40,000 will pay even that much more. So we have to do something to stabilize the market for those middle-class families currently kind of groaning beneath Obamacare.
But, going forward, Obamacare just cannot — our American people want more freedom to make the decision that matters to them and not have somebody in Washington, D.C., tell them what that decision should be. Obamacare tells them what that decision should be. It may take a while, but we will get to a point where that power goes back to the family. And that’s where it should be.
WALLACE: But it might not happen on this legislative calendar.
CASSIDY: It may not happen completely on this legislative calendar, but the process will begin. And as that process begins, it will be inevitable that it will eventually, completely occur.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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