After the Republican replacement for Obamacare was dramatically pulled at the last minute Friday due to lack of support, top Washington Democrats took a victory lap, mocking President Trump and claiming the bill’s failure as a win for their party and the American public.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a statement blaming the bill’s failure on what he characterized as two hallmarks of the Trump administration: “incompetence and broken promises.”
“In my life, I have never seen an administration as incompetent as the one occupying the White House today,” Schumer said.
“They can’t write policy that actually makes sense, they can’t implement the policies they do manage to write, they can’t get their stories straight, and today we’ve learned that they can’t close a deal and they can’t count votes.”
“So much for the ‘Art of the Deal.’”
In a press conference, surrounded by other congressional Democrats, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who was serving as House speaker when the Affordable Care Act was passed, was buoyant.
“Today is a great day for our country,” Pelosi said. “It’s a victory. What happened on the floor is a victory for the American people — for our seniors, for people with disabilities, for our children, for our veterans.”
Pelosi charged the Republicans with “spite” for originally scheduling a vote on the replacement legislation for Thursday, the seventh anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Speaking from the Oval Office later Friday, Trump, predicting the imminent failure of the Affordable Care Act, was eager to associate its continuance with both Schumer and Pelosi.
“I think the losers are Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer because now they own Obamacare. They own it, 100 percent own it.”
