Americans are ratcheting up the pressure on Republican lawmakers to repeal the Affordable Care Act, essentially telling them "do something now, damn it!" Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, told Newsmax TV.
But, Farenthold adds former President Barack Obama's signature healthcare plan must be dismantled over time, not all at once.
He spoke as top aides to President Donald Trump on Monday predicted a vote this week in the House of Representatives on legislation to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system.
"I think you're going to have to do it piece by piece," Farenthold told host Bill Tucker on Monday's "America Talks Live." "Remember the biggest Republican complaint was it was one big chunk of legislation that nobody read.
"But I suspect that all of my Republican colleagues are hearing the same thing I'm hearing, and that is, 'We gave you the House, we gave you the Senate, we gave you the White House, do something now, damn it!'
"And repealing Obamacare is what they're talking about there. So, I think we're going to have to come together or the voters are going to be really ticked off at us."
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Farenthold's warning comes following the collapse of the GOP's American Health Care Act failed to gain support earlier this year.
"We need to make it more incentives for businesses to offer plans," Farenthold told Tucker.
"And we need to incentivize people to get on insurance before they need it, and we need to incentivize good behavior, and we need to make sure that there's are available for folks.
"And that's tough to do in a cost-effective manner. But I guarantee you, the free market is going to do a better job of offering that at an affordable rate than a government-controlled program."
He added: "If I were to write the Obamacare repeal, it would be three sentences long. It would say, Obamacare is hereby repealed, it would say: 'States, here is 75 percent of the money we spent on Obamacare, divide it up per capita, have fun.'"
In separate interviews on CBS News on Monday, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn predicted action to end the Affordable Care Act would soon succeed.
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