President Donald Trump said in a televised interview that resolving the ongoing government shutdown could pave the way for bipartisan healthcare reform, urging Democrats to “let the country open” so that negotiations can begin.
In an interview with 60 Minutes, President Trump placed responsibility for the shutdown squarely on congressional Democrats.
“We keep voting. I mean, the Republicans are voting almost unanimously to end it — and the Democrats keep voting against ending it… They’ve lost their way,” he said, referring to the partisan divide that has left the federal government at a standstill.
On the issue of Obamacare, which is at the heart of the dispute, the president reiterated his longstanding criticism of the program, labeling it “terrible,” and called for bipartisan action.
“Obamacare is terrible. It’s bad healthcare at far too high a price. We should fix that. We should fix it, and we can fix it with the Democrats. All they have to do is let the country open, and we’ll fix it. They have to let the country open and I’ll sit down with the Democrats and we’ll fix it,” he said.
Trump insisted that his administration could deliver higher-quality, more affordable healthcare but gave few details on how he would achieve that outcome.
“We can make it much less expensive for people and give them much better healthcare — and I’d be willing to work with the Democrats on it, [but] the problem is they want to give money to prisoners, to drug dealers, to all these millions of people that were allowed to come in with an open border from Biden, and nobody can do that. Not one Republican would ever do that,” he said.
While Trump talked of a possible bipartisan solution he said he wasn’t going to be forced into concessions by the hardline stance of Democrats on the shutdown.
“We can fix [healthcare]… but I’m not going to do it by extortion. I’m not going to do it by being extorted by the Democrats who have lost their way… It’s going to get solved. Eventually, they’re going to have to vote — I think they have to,” Trump said.
“And if they don’t vote, that’s their problem. I think we should do the nuclear option… it’s called ending the filibuster,” he added, referencing removing the requirement for a 60-vote majority to advance most legislation in the Senate and allowing a simple majority vote to pass.
Such a radical move to the Senate’s procedure is unlikely to have enough support to become reality according to Politico, which reported that several Republicans in the Senate had already rejected the idea.