One week after cautioning Congressional Republicans with their repeal and replace efforts with Obamacare, President-elect Donald Trump is now pushing them to hold a repeal vote "sometime next week," The New York Times reported.
"We have to get to business," Trump told The Times. "Obamacare has been a catastrophic event."
The sudden urgency is in stark contrast to Trump's message last week which was, in essence, tread carefully and do this right — Democrats should continue to own the mess of Obamacare.
"Don't let the Schumer clowns out of this web," Trump tweeted Jan. 4.
But it is Trump standing on the accelerator, now going faster than Republicans seem to be prepared — or able — to go. Is it repeal and replace, or repeal first, replace later?
"Long to me would be weeks," Trump told The Times. "It won't be repeal and then two years later go in with another plan."
But House Speaker Paul Ryan wants to ensure "a stable transition period so that people do not have the rug pulled out from under them."
Further, the House Freedom Caucus on Monday night has said it wants to delay the budget vote — hence, delaying a repeal vote on Obamacare — until it knows more about the specifics of what "replace" looks like and its effect on the budget.
Ryan has vowed a replacement for Obama's signature healthcare legislation would be ready this year.
As long as later this year means later this month, according to The Times.
Trump is expecting a repeal vote "some time next week," and "the replace will be very quickly or simultaneously, very shortly thereafter," he told The Times.
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