Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, laid out the GOP position ahead of a meeting with the president later in the day, telling reporters that “the whole purpose of this luncheon is to keep the whole team together and make sure we don't have any weak links.”
When asked at what point the president needs to become directly involved in the quarantine, Marshall responded, “If I've learned anything from President Trump, it's timing, and he'll know when the moment is right.”
“And that’s not all,” Marshall added.
The Kansas Republican said, “Whenever Democrats want to fund the government, we'll be happy to sit down and fix the ACA.”
Democrats have demanded an extension of health insurance tax breaks to reopen the government. Marshall, a physician, said Democrats must be prepared to address “at least three major problems” when it comes to health care, pointing to fraud, the cost of insurance premiums and high deductibles.
“So it's a very broken system and it will take weeks to figure out how to fix it,” he added.
Marshall called the funding cutoff a “political shutdown.” He said: “I'm not sure who's winning the political war right now, the messaging, but of course we're quite happy with where we are at the moment.”
