Trump slams Mitch McConnell, questions why health care is "not done"
President Trump shot back at Mitch McConnell on Wednesday after the Senate majority leader said that the president had "excessive expectations" about the legislative process.
In a tweet, Mr. Trump disagreed with McConnell's remark and questioned why the health care law had not been repealed and replaced under his watch.
Earlier in the day, Trump aide Dan Scavino, Jr., slammed McConnell in a tweet, suggesting that the majority leader might have needed "another 4 years - in addition to the 7 years" to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
The response comes two days after McConnell said at a Kentucky rotary club, "Now our new president, has of course, not been in this line of work before and I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process."
"So part of the reason I think people think we're underperforming is because too many kind of artificial deadlines unrelated to the reality of the complexity of legislating may not been fully understood," McConnell added.
Republicans in the Senate failed to pass a plan last month to repeal and replace Obamacare. Three were voted on and Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, cast the surprise "no" vote on the final plan, dooming the effort at the end of the process.
Sen. Orrin Hatch said Senate Republicans are not going to return to health care in the fall and will instead focus on tax reform. The Utah Republican used a colorful metaphor to describe his party's failure to pass a repeal of Obamacare.
"We're not going back to health care. We're in tax now. As far as I'm concerned, they shot their wad on health care and that's the way it is. I'm sick of it," Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told Politico last week.
The House and Senate have gone on their month-long recess for August and won't return to Capitol Hill until September. The president, meanwhile, is spending 17 days on vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He had no public events scheduled on Wednesday.
