Schumer: Dems ‘willing’ to work with GOP if they stop ‘undermining’ ObamaCare

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday signaled Democrats would be willing to work with Republicans on healthcare if the GOP stops “undermining” ObamaCare.

During an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Schumer said President Trump never called Democrats on healthcare reform.

“We Democrats, provided our Republican colleagues drop replace and stop undermining the ACA, are willing to work with our Republican friends — as long as they say ‘no more repeal,'” Schumer said, referring to the Affordable Care Act.

“We have ideas, they have ideas to try to improve ObamaCare. We never said it was perfect, we always said we’d work with them to improve it, we just said repeal was off the table.”

{mosads}Schumer also criticized the president for his comments on ObamaCare.

“For the president to say that he’ll destroy it or undermine it, that’s not presidential,” Schumer said  “That’s petulance … and it’s not going to work.”

The job of the president is to make the lives of Americans better, Schumer added.

“And if he — out of anger or vengeance of whatever — starts undermining ACA, it’s going to backfire on him,” Schumer said.

“Because he’s the president, and the American people know he’s in charge, and they want him to make things better.”

On Friday, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) pulled the GOP healthcare bill amid dwindling support among Republicans.

The move marked the first legislative defeat for President Trump, who blamed Democrats for not backing the proposal and signaled he would move on to other legislative priorities.