Republicans are looking to quickly repeal Obamacare and then force Democrats to negotiate a replacement, The Hill reports.
The GOP strategy includes delaying the repeal going into effect for a few years while Congress works on a comprehensive replacement package, according to The Hill.
It will only take a majority of the Senate to officially dump President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act. But it will require the usual 60 votes in the Senate to advance the replacement, The Hill notes. As a result, Republicans will need some Democrats to side with them.
Congressional Republicans will try to convince Democrats they will shoulder the blame if Obamacare is killed and the millions of people covered by the law have nowhere to go, The Hill reports.
"When that day came and you did nothing, if you want to play politics, I think the blame would go to people who didn't want to do anything," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said.
But for now Democrats are not rushing to embrace the GOP plan, the website reports.
"It's so incredibly irresponsible to forward the notion that they have been preaching repeal and replace, repeal and replace, and they're going to repeal without telling the American people what the replace is?" said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.
But Republicans are confident that enough Democrats will side with them.
"I think we're going to have some receptive Democrats doing that because one is it's the right thing to do, but also when you take a look at the 2018 Senate landscape, there are only eight Republican senators who are up, and there are 25 Democratic senators who are up," Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said.
But The Washington Post reports Democrats are holding tight in their opposition.
"We're not going to do a replacement," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York told the newspaper.
"If they repeal without a replacement, they will own it. Democrats will not then step up to the plate and come up with a half-baked solution that we will partially own. It's all theirs."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.