President Trump encouraged Republican senators during a health care meeting on Tuesday "to be more generous" when it comes to spending, a source with knowledge of the discussion told The Post.
Utah's two senators and 13 of their Republican colleagues sat down with President Donald Trump on Tuesday about efforts to replace the Affordable Care Act but were tight-lipped about the meeting afterward.
But the comment belies the celebratory Rose Garden ceremony Trump hosted earlier this year when the House passed the bill and the President championed it as "incredibly well crafted" and "terrific".
His comments also seemed to undercut efforts by Senate conservatives to include restrictions in their chamber's bill, such as cutting the Medicaid health care program for the poor and limiting the services insurers must cover.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who has been more wary of Medicaid cuts in the healthcare bill than some other Republicans, said Trump did not try to pressure him to support a specific bill.
Trump hosted 13 Republican senators for lunch at the White House on Tuesday in a bid to help the lawmakers find common ground to move forward with healthcare reform legislation this summer.
"He said, 'American people deserve time to read this and every member of Congress ought to commit to reading the bill.' Today, no member of Congress can read the bill because we don't know what it is", Schumer said, just moments before Pence and his security detail passed behind the Democratic leader.
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that only 8% - that's not a typo, it's literally 8% - of the country wants the House Republicans' bill, which Trump heralded as a triumph of politics and policy, to become law.
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According to a conservative Senate aide, Trump told the lawmakers "we need to be more generous".
Trump said President Barack Obama's health care law "had been broken and it's been a broken promise". "From day one, I said we are going to repeal and replace Obamacare".
After his lunch, Trump will travel to Milwaukee, where he will meet with so-called Obamacare victims, speak about health care and address a fundraiser for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
At the beginning of the lunch, which was open to the press for a few minutes, Trump said that the Senate is coming up with "a phenomenal" bill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could still pass a bill without the votes of Lee and Paul, but he could afford no further defections from his caucus.
The House narrowly passed the AHCA in May by a vote of 217-213. Senators will vote on a bill to reform one-sixth of the nation's economy and involving the health care of 140 million Americans that most senators will have had no time to read.
Under the proposal, Medicaid coverage would be offered alongside commercial insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchange starting in 2019.
"No, that's not true", McCaskill said, adding that during the drafting of Obamacare, "dozens of Republican amendments were offered and accepted in that hearing process". You know what's in it, we have no idea.
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