John Thune: Health care debacle makes Republicans look ‘dysfunctional’

Sen. John Thune said Tuesday that Senate Republicans’ inability to come together on health care makes them look “dysfunctional.”

“People out there who have an expectation that we’re going to get this done deserve to at least see us carry through with that commitment. And I think that it looks to our supporters that we can’t shoot straight. It makes us and Republicans generally look dysfunctional,” Mr. Thune, South Dakota Republican, said on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”

Mr. Thune said the Senate will need to recount the votes for a straight repeal on Obamacare now that President Trump could sign the bill into law.

“We’ll now have to go through the exercise of sort of re-whipping this, because we are using live ammunition. You know, when we had this 18 months ago in 2015, we had a Democrat president that everybody knew would veto the bill,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that the Republicans would abandon their replacement plan efforts and instead focus on just repealing the existing law. The bill would include a two-year delay to allow Republicans time to draft a replacement plan with more support.