WASHINGTON, DC –  At President Donald Trump’s request, the bill to repeal/replace Obama care was pulled. There were going to be no Democrat votes on the bill.  The GOP dissent was coming from the moderate wing of the house that claimed the bill had too much teeth, and the Freedom Fighter/Tea Party wing of the party there were not extensive cuts enough to Medicaid expansion.

Congressman Mike Bost (R-Murphysboro) issued the following statement:  

“Today’s decision to postpone the vote does not dismiss the fact that Obamacare is broken. This law has led to higher costs, fewer choices, and less access to the quality care that people need. These trends just aren’t sustainable. The American Health Care Act was to be the first step in a multi-step process to fix our health care system. I am hopeful that the White House and Congress will continue working to find solutions that restore health care decisions to patients and their doctors and not the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.”

Congressman John Shimkus (R-Maryville) issued the following statement:  

“I’ve strongly opposed the Affordable Care Act’s mandates, middle-class tax hikes, and expensive one-size-fits-all health insurance plans since day one. My constituents have judged that law, and the more than 60 votes I’ve cast to repeal and replace it, through seven years and four election cycles. They’ve rendered their judgement: Obamacare has failed.

“As we all saw this week, moving bills through the legislative process is hard. But that’s a feature, not a flaw, of our constitutional republic. While I’m disappointed in today’s outcome, my commitment to my constituents to follow through on the promise I made to provide relief from Obamacare is as strong as ever.”

Senator Dick Durbin (D Springfield)  posted the following tweets:

“Today, the Republicans’ frantic attempt to ram through a half-baked bill repealing health care for millions of Americans fell flat. The GOP must put repeal behind them now and work with Democrats to improve–not destroy–America’s health care system.”

President Donald Trump issued this statement before talking to the press this afternoon:

 

 

 

 

 

“Thank you very much.  We were very close, and it was a very, very tight margin.  We had no Democrat support.  We had no votes from the Democrats.  They weren’t going to give us a single vote, so it’s a very difficult thing to do.”

“I’ve been saying for the last year and a half that the best thing we can do politically speaking is let Obamacare explode.  It is exploding right now.  Many states have big problems — almost all states have big problems.  I was in Tennessee the other day, and they’ve lost half of their state in terms of an insurer; they have no insurer.  And that’s happened to many other places.  I was in Kentucky the other day, and similar things are happening.”

“So Obamacare is exploding.  With no Democrat support, we couldn’t quite get there.  We were just a very small number of votes short in terms of getting our bill passed.  A lot of people don’t realize how good our bill was because they were viewing phase one.  But when you add phase two — which was mostly the signings of Secretary Price, who’s behind me — and you add phase three, which I think we would have gotten — it became a great bill.  Premiums would have gone down and it would have been very stable, it would have been very strong.  But that’s okay.”

“But we’re very, very close.  And again, I think what will happen is Obamacare, unfortunately, will explode.  It’s going to have a very bad year.  Last year you had over a 100 percent increases in various places.  In Arizona, I understand it’s going up very rapidly again, like it did last year; last year it was 116 percent.  Many places, 50, 60, 70 percent, I guess it averaged — whatever the average was — very, very high.   And this year should be much worse for Obamacare.”

“So what would be really good, with no Democrat support, is if the Democrats, when it explodes — which it will soon — if they got together with us and got a real healthcare bill.  I would be totally up to do it.  And I think that’s going to happen.  I think the losers are Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, because now they own Obamacare.  They own it — 100 percent own it.”

“And this is not a Republican healthcare, this is not anything but a Democrat healthcare.  And they have Obamacare for a little while longer, until it ceases to exist, which it will at some point in the near future.  And just remember this is not our bill, this is their bill.”

“Now, when they all become civilized and get together, and try and work out a great healthcare bill for the people of this country, we’re open to it.  We’re totally open to it.”

“I want to thank the Republican Party.  I want to thank Paul Ryan — he worked very, very hard, I will tell you that.  He worked very, very hard.  Tom Price and Mike Pence — who’s right here — our Vice President, our great Vice President.  Everybody worked hard.  I worked as a team player and would have loved to have seen it passed.  But again, I think you know I was very clear, I think there wasn’t a speech I made, or very few where I didn’t mention that perhaps the best thing that can happen is exactly what happened today, because we’ll end up with a truly great healthcare bill in the future, after this mess known as Obamacare explodes.”

“So I want to thank everybody for being here.  It will go very smoothly, I really believe.  I think this is something — it certainly was an interesting period of time.  We all learned a lot.  We learned a lot about loyalty.  We learned a lot about the vote-getting process.  We learned a lot about some very arcane rules in, obviously, both the Senate and in the House.  So it’s been — certainly for me, it’s been a very interesting experience.  But in the end, I think it’s going to be an experience that leads to an even better healthcare plan.”

“So thank you all very much.  And I’ll see you soon.”

– U.S Representative Mike Bost (IL-12) released the following statement following the State Department’s approval of a construction permit for the Keystone XL pipeline project:

“This is a win for American jobs, American national security, and the American consumer,” said Bost. “This project is estimated to create tens of thousands of U.S. jobs in the construction, manufacturing, transportation and services industries, all of which are important to the economy of Southern Illinois. The pipeline will also decrease our dependency on Middle Eastern oil and help lower prices at the pump.”