President Trump Slams McConnell On 'Excessive Expectations,' Health Care

WASHINGTON, DC — President Trump is now publicly fueding with Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, about the party's failed efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. Trump shot back at the senator for saying the president had "excessive expectations" about the process of lawmaking.

"Senator Mitch McConnell said I had 'excessive expectations,' but I don't think so," Trump tweeted Wednesday afternoon. "After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?"

McConnell's remarks came at a meeting of the Rotary Club in his home state of Kentucky on Monday, when the majority leader addressed the perception that Congress is dysfunctional.

“Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before," McConnell said. "And I think he had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process. So part of the reason I think people feel we’re underperforming is because too many artificial deadlines, unrelated to the reality of the complexity of legislating, may not have been fully understood.”

In a sign that relations with the party are wearing thin, the president's tweet places the blame for inaction on health care at the feet of lawmakers, rather than himself.

Both politicians could make strong arguments for their points of view.

Trump rightly notes that Republicans have been pledging to "repeal and replace" Obamacare for seven years, and McConnell, along with House Speaker Paul Ryan, hold the power of bringing bills to the floor. Under President Obama, Republicans repeatedly passed Obamacare repeal bills when they knew they would be vetoed; this gave the impression that they would be able implement their plans with a Republican president in place.

On the other hand, McConnell can note that Trump has repeatedly raised the stakes of what Republicans could accomplish legislatively. Trump said, "We're going to have insurance for everybody," which the Republicans pledging to "repeal and replace" Obamacare never promised to do. He also said the process would be "so easy." And this process, which would reform one-sixth of the country's economy, would make health care "far less expensive and far better."

Trump even once said that, if elected, he could make "every dream you ever dreamed for you country come true."

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