Trump: Take money from ‘big, bad insurance companies,’ give it to Americans

President Trump said he’s telling Senate Republicans that money sent to insurance companies should instead go to individuals so they can buy better health care.

The government has been shut down for nearly 40 days as Senate Democrats fight for an extension of enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies.

“I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over,” Mr. Trump wrote Saturday on social media.

“In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare,” he added.

He also reiterated his calls for Senate Republicans to ditch the filibuster.

“The Democrats are winning in that they are destroying our great, miracle economy, which is exactly what they set out to do,” he wrote in another post. “TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!”

In a subsequent post, he said Democrats are “cracking like dogs” on the shutdown because they think he’s making headway with Senate Republicans to get rid of the filibuster.

“Whether we make a Deal or not, the Republicans must ‘blow up’ the filibuster, and approve hundreds of long sought, but never gotten, policy wins like, as just a small example, voter I.D. (identification),” he wrote mostly in all caps. “Only a LOSER would not agree to doing this!”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and other Republicans have signaled they’re not open to nuking the filibuster.

Senate Democrats blocked a bill Friday that would’ve paid federal workers who have gone without compensation after Republicans rejected Democrats’ offer to reopen the government with a one-year extension of the premium subsidies.

The president has said that Senate Republicans need to do away with the filibuster so policies can get passed. He’s argued that Senate Democrats would do the same if they were in the majority.