Senate Republicans embrace Trump’s call – from his Florida golf course – to replace Obamacare | US federal government shutdown 2025

U.S. senators are working full weekend for the first time since the government shutdown began more than a month ago, but hopes for a bipartisan agreement on how to end the standoff and keep health care affordable for millions of Americans appear to have faded as Republican senators put forward a toxic proposal for Democrats: repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare.

The impact on Americans of the longest federal government shutdown in history intensified Saturday as federal workers were not paid, airlines were forced to cancel flights and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits were delayed for 42 million Americans.

How Saturday lesson Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Rick Scott of Florida and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana applauded the proposal, made on social media early Saturday morning. Donald Trumpfrom his golf course in West Palm Beach so that the subsidies would be replaced with health savings accounts.

IN True post on social networkTrump suggested that instead of meeting Democratic demands for expanded subsidies for health insurance plans purchased through the ACA marketplace to pay for skyrocketing premiums, Republicans should return to a blueprint to replace the Obama-era law that failed during his first administration.

“I recommend to the Senate republicans that the hundreds of billions of dollars that are currently being funneled to money-sucking insurance companies to save the poor healthcare provided by ObamaCare WILL BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THEY CAN BUY THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE,” Trump wrote.

Graham welcomed a proposal similar to Obamacare replacement he nominated in 2017, letter Social media says Trump's “recommendation that we stop sending tens of billions of Obamacare dollars to money-sucking insurance companies and instead send that money directly to people so they can buy better healthcare is simply brilliant.”

“We're going to replace this broken system with something that's actually going to be better for the consumer,” Graham later said.

Cassidy, who co-authored Graham's similar plan in 2017, also praised Trump's proposal on social networks and stood nearby to the gigantic bloat of Trump's post when he spoke in the Senate.

“I'm writing a bill right now,” Scott published in response to Trump's proposal. “We must stop taxpayer money going to insurance companies and instead transfer it directly to Americans into HSA-style accounts, allowing them to buy the health care they want. This will increase competition and lower costs.”

None of the Republican senators seem to have grasped the fact that consumers will still have to buy plans from the same insurance companies, or that Republican lawmakers need the support of eight Democrats to reopen the government, and the idea of ​​repealing Obamacare and replacing it with savings accounts is unlikely to win a single Democratic vote.

Elizabeth Warren, Democrat from Massachusetts, general alarming response to Trump's proposal from Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, who wrote on social media: “You have to read between the lines to imagine what President Trump is proposing. But it looks like it could be a plan for medical bills that could be used for insurance that doesn't cover pre-existing conditions, which could create a death spiral in ACA plans that do.”

“In other words, Donald Trump's health care 'blueprint' is yet another cynical attempt to repeal Obamacare,” Warren commented. “This is the same failed Republican plan that was rejected by voters and Congress. We can lower costs and open government TODAY by passing the ACA tax breaks.”

After golfing, Trump returned to his gold-plated Mar-a-Lago private club and doubled down on demands that Republicans stop seeking compromise and instead try to repeal and replace Obamacare with a version of the plan that failed to gain enough support in 2017.

“NO MORE MONEY, HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, FOR INSURANCE COMPANIES SUPPORTED BY A DEMOCRAT FOR THE REALLY BAD OBAMAK,” Trump published. “THE MONEY SHOULD NOW GO DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE BY BRINGING FAT CAT INSURANCE COMPANIES OUT OF THE CORRUPT HEALTH SYSTEM. PEOPLE CAN BUY THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER POLICY FOR MUCH LESS MONEY,” the president said, without explaining how Americans would be able to purchase cheaper plans from the same insurance companies.

Some observers have suggested that the nature of such a plan would eliminate the ACA's requirement that insurers cover patients with pre-existing conditions.

Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who supports Democrats, responded to criticism of insurance companies having written: “Oh, Trump and the Republicans can't stand how the big, bad insurance companies are ripping off Americans. Seriously? Then I applaud your support for Medicare for All. Let's end the greed of the insurance industry and make healthcare a human right, not a privilege.”

The Senate went into recess without a solution, but Senate Republican leaders signaled their openness to an emerging proposal from a small group of moderate Democrats to end the shutdown in exchange for a later vote on Obamacare subsidies.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the New Hampshire Democrat who is leading the negotiations among moderates, said Friday night that Democrats “need a different path forward” after Republicans rejected a proposal from Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York to reopen the government and extend subsidies for a year.

Schumer insisted Saturday that Republicans should agree to extend the subsidies for one year before negotiating the future of the tax breaks.

“Doing nothing is wrong because people will go bankrupt, people will lose insurance, people will get worse,” Schumer said in his speech. “This is what will happen if Congress doesn’t act.”

One of the strange elements of Republicans' efforts to signal that their party is working overtime to end the shutdown, even as Trump plays golf in Florida, was a social media post Saturday from Markwayne Mullin, a senator from Oklahoma. Mullin published four photos of himself and two other Republican senators meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, with the caption: “Working all weekend with President Donald Trump. It's always an honor to be in the Oval Office. I never take this opportunity to serve Oklahoma for granted.”

What Mullin failed to make clear was that the photos were taken on the Friday before Trump left for a weekend of golf at his Florida resort. Mullin himself previously posted one of the photos on video on social networks Friday evening.

Associated Press contributed reporting