“I don’t really know what he’s referring to in terms of a year,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the No. 2 Senate leader. “Hopefully we will get our replacement plan in place well before that.”
“When I heard that timeline, I was like, ‘Okay, well, that’s — that’s another timeline,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the Republican conference chair. “We’ll factor that in.”
“He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know with respect to the legislative process,” said Rep. Patrick J. Tiberi (R-Ohio), chairman of a key subcommittee assembling the health plan.
It was only the latest example of Trump making an off-the-cuff statement on a sensitive policy matter that has bewildered the Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are working to implement his — and their — agenda.
In the case of health care, Trump has frustrated GOP leaders who have been struggling to keep their party together on a complicated and potentially disruptive plan to replace the Affordable Care Act — only to watch Trump seem to overpromise and step on their carefully crafted messaging.
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