These 5 House Republicans are ripping their Senate colleagues over healthcare

Getty Images

Republican efforts to fulfill a seven year campaign promise to repeal and replace ObamaCare failed in the Senate early hours of Friday morning, with 48 Democrats and three Republicans opposing the measure.

Because the House successfully passed an ObamaCare repeal and replace bill, the Senate is now in the crosshairs for the collapse of the effort.

Here are some of the House Republicans speaking out against their colleagues in the upper chamber.

Paul Ryan

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who led the House in passing its own version of a repeal and replace bill, voiced his frustrations with the result of the repeal and replace efforts on Friday, saying although he was “disappointed and frustrated,” he encourages “the Senate to continue working toward a real solution that keeps our promise.”

{mosads}

However, Ryan reportedly did not mince words during a close door meeting, saying the House of Representatives was the only arm of government that was functioning, according to CNN.

Mo Brooks

CNN reported that during the same meeting Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) yelled “low bar!”

Brooks even called for McConnell’s resignation, saying “the buck stops there.”

“Unquestionably, the leadership at the top is responsible. The buck stops there, that’s why you take on that kind of responsibility,” Brooks told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “And if Mitch McConnell cannot get the job done on this, how is he going to get the job done on the rest of President Trump’s agenda over the next three-and-a-half years? This is a killer.”

“It’s not necessarily anything bad about Mitch McConnell himself personally,” he said. “But he’s got a job to do, and if he can’t do it, then, as ‘The Apprentice’ would say, ‘you’re fired,’ get somebody who can.”

Bradley Byrne

Rep. Bradley Bryne (R-Ala.) offered more toned down comments, saying he did not want to point the finger at one person, but that the Senate has an institutional problem.

“I don’t feel like we’re in a war, but I feel like there’s deep disappointment among House Republicans that we did our work and got a bill out and they failed. Any I’m not pointing my finger at any one person, I think this is an institutional problem for the Senate,” he told CNN.

Sean Duffy

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) blasted Senate Republicans’ failure on Friday, calling the upper chamber “dysfunctional.”

“When America looks at the government they say the Congress. Right now they’re saying okay, we get it. It’s not the House, it’s the Senate that’s dysfunctional [that] can’t get its act together,” Duffy said.

“This is so simple because the Senate has a stupid filibuster rule, and so they’re to craft healthcare reform with all of these guard rails of budget reconciliation, which are the rules of these sixty votes that the Senate needs,” he said.

“If you could blow open healthcare reform, and do competition against across state lines and tort reforms, as well as tax reform inside of ObamaCare, you could possibly get a deal. But when you use budget reconciliation, it doesn’t work. It makes the Senate so darn dysfunctional that we can’t even partner with them,” he continued.

Trey Gowdy

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) ripped the failed efforts on Fox News Friday, saying Republicans had plenty of time to sell the ObamaCare repeal and replace to the American people.

“Our problem is that for seven years we’ve been telling folks what we’re against and what we’re opposed to and then we’ve had seven months to govern, and the best we can come up with is a skinny plan on 24-hours notice?” Gowdy said.

“We gotta get better at telling people what we believe, why we believe it, and then persuading people why it’s right the country. We’ve had plenty of time to do it. We set unrealistic expectations and then we never meet them,” he continued.

“The best we came up with was something called skinny,” he said.

The Senate GOP’s healthcare failure was not the only issue plaguing Gowdy on Friday. Gowdy’s colleague and northern neighbor Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) posted a selfie on Twitter after both of the congressmen’s flights home were cancelled.

“I believe @TGowdySC is more upset over the Senate’s vote than our flights being canceled. Road tripping to the Carolinas!” Walker tweeted.

Most House Republicans were headed back to their districts over the weekend for the August recess. The Senate will remain in session for another two weeks, although they are not expected to tackle healthcare again this month.

The collapse of the healthcare reform effort – for now – signals the death of a years-long effort by the GOP.

After securing enough votes to bring the healthcare debate to the Senate floor, Republican leadership put forward a bare bones repeal and replace bill that was christened the “skinny” repeal, and left various sections of ObamaCare untouched.

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Me.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) stood against the motion earlier this week, voting against bringing the debate to the floor.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) put the final nail in the repeal and replace coffin late Thursday night and into Friday night when he stunned the chamber by giving the Senate clerk a thumbs down, signaling he was a no vote.

“I regret that our efforts were simply not enough this time. Now, I imagine many of our colleagues on the other side are celebrating. Probably pretty happy about all this. But the American people are hurting, and they need relief,” an emotional Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said after the vote.

Tags John McCain Lisa Murkowski Mitch McConnell Mo Brooks Paul Ryan Sean Duffy Susan Collins Trey Gowdy

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Most Popular

Load more