On Wednesday’s CNN’s “The Lead,” Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) responded to Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) talking about compromises on Obamacare subsidies that Democrats can support by saying that “the only real way for the Republicans to avoid the calamity, the healthcare calamity that will occur on January 1, is for 13 of them to vote for the bill we have on the floor. It’s clean, it’s a three-year extension, and it would prevent these dramatic increases of 500, 1,000 dollars a month going to health care.”
Host Jake Tapper played video of Welch saying, “Some Republicans have proposed putting a cap on the income. That’s something we’d be open to, or a very small co-pay at the bottom end, that’s realistic. So, if we were talking about that, and the Republicans could deliver votes, I think you’d get an outcome.”
Tapper then asked, “Is that something you’d be willing to agree to?”
Schumer answered, “Well, the key line there is, Peter Welch said, if the Republicans can deliver votes, they can’t. They are busy fighting with each other with 100 different proposals, and none of their proposals extend the ACA credits by a day, let alone a month, a year, etc. And so, the only real way for the Republicans to avoid the calamity, the healthcare calamity that will occur on January 1, is for 13 of them to vote for the bill we have on the floor. It’s clean, it’s a three-year extension, and it would prevent these dramatic increases of 500, 1,000 dollars a month going to health care. The Republicans are adamant. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) got on the floor and [said], we will not extend the ACA.”
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