BURSTSen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said Sunday that President Trump’s megabill will be a “political albatross” for Republicans back at home.
In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” moderator Margaret Brennan noted that the GOP tax and spending bill, which just cleared a key hurdle in the Senate on Saturday night, includes some policies that Democrats have championed.
“You can put as much lipstick on this pig as you want. This will be a political albatross for the Republicans,” Warner said, suggesting the individual policy add-ons don’t justify supporting the bill overall.
“It takes 16 million Americans off of health care coverage, with cuts to Medicaid and cuts to the ObamaCare marketplace. That will move us, as a nation, back to the same percentage of uninsured we had before ObamaCare,” Warner said when asked to expand on his thinking.
Warner also said the Medicaid cuts will affect everyone — not just those on Medicaid.
“And, it's not like these people are not going to get sick. They're going to show up at the emergency room” without coverage, he said. “The only way those costs get passed on is higher health insurance to all of us who have traditional coverage.”
He also criticized the bill for cutting funds to food assistance and adding trillions to the debt.
“Are we really in such a place that we're cutting, in my state, a couple hundred thousand people off of school lunches, school breakfasts? They even cut food banks. It's cruel,” he said. “This was to make sure that the highest, most wealthy Americans can get an extra tax break.”
Warner said he thinks his Republican colleagues “know they're walking the plank on this, and we'll see if those who've expressed quiet consternation will actually have the courage of their convictions.”
He also noted that the bill has not made it through to the president’s desk, adding, “It’s not over until it’s over.”
“I will grant that President Trump has been able to hold his party in line in an unprecedented manner. At the other end, this bill will come back and bite them. This is going to do so much damage in terms of, not only health care, food assistance, you know, the whole notion that we are moving towards cleaner energy jobs, all on the chopping block, adding $4 trillion to the debt,” Warner said.
“Tell me, at the end of the day, how that is good for America? I don't think you can make the case,” he added.