McConnell, who endorsed former President Trump last week, told reporters he would not weigh in on developing issues for Trump’s policy agenda.
He acknowledged, however, that Republicans could take another swing at repealing the program if the former president presents a viable alternative.
“We had a fight over that a few years ago,” said McConnell. “If he can develop a base for revisiting that issue, obviously we’d take a look at it, but it seems to me that’s largely over.”
Trump has voiced his continued desire to repeal Obamacare as recently as last year.
Taking to his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote in November that “the cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives.”
Trump further fanned the flames earlier this week when he said, “there is a lot you can do” when it came to cuts to other entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security. His campaign later clarified that he was talking about “cutting waste.”
President Biden appears to still believe Republicans want to take down the ACA, saying as much in his State of the Union address last week.
“Folks, Obamacare, known as the Affordable Care Act is still a very big deal,” Biden said. “But my predecessor and many in this chamber want to take that protection away by repealing the Affordable Care Act I won’t let that happen! We stopped you 50 times before, and we will stop you again!”
The ACA has now been in effect for almost 14 years, and analysts have previously warned that rescinding an entitlement program, especially one that’s been around for a while, would be a politically fraught move by any party.
