Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says there’s no ‘formal’ White House proposal to defund Obamacare
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday there is no formal proposal from the White House to defund the Affordable Care Act, despite President Trump posting on social media a plan to eliminate Obamacare and send money directly to the American people.
“We don’t have a formal proposal,” Mr. Bessent said on ABC’s “This Week.”
When asked if such a plan could be sent to the Senate, Mr. Bessent said the administration is not proposing it “right now.”
Mr. Trump said Saturday that he’s telling Senate Republicans that money sent to insurance companies should instead go to individuals so they can buy better health care.
Mr. Bessent also sidestepped questions about Mr. Trump’s push to eliminate the Senate filibuster to end the government shutdown.
“The best way is for five Democratic senators to come across the aisle,” Mr. Bessent said, noting that would give Republicans the five votes they needed to reopen the government.
The government has been shut down for nearly 40 days as Senate Democrats fight for an extension of enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies.
“I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over,” Mr. Trump posted Saturday on social media.
“In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare,” he added.
He also reiterated his calls for Senate Republicans to ditch the filibuster.
“The Democrats are winning in that they are destroying our great, miracle economy, which is exactly what they set out to do,” he wrote in another post. “TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!”
In a subsequent post, he said Democrats are “cracking like dogs” on the shutdown because they think he’s making headway with Senate Republicans to get rid of the filibuster.
“Whether we make a Deal or not, the Republicans must ‘blow up’ the filibuster, and approve hundreds of long sought, but never gotten, policy wins like, as just a small example, voter I.D. (identification),” he wrote mostly in all caps. “Only a LOSER would not agree to doing this!”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and other Republicans have signaled they’re not open to nuking the filibuster.
Senate Democrats blocked a bill Friday that would’ve paid federal workers who have gone without compensation after Republicans rejected Democrats’ offer to reopen the government with a one-year extension of the premium subsidies.
The president has said that Senate Republicans need to do away with the filibuster so policies can get passed. He has argued that Senate Democrats would do the same if they were in the majority.
