CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday grilled Speaker of the House Paul Ryan over the GOP healthcare plan, wondering how he can insist Donald Trump is “on the same page” as House Republicans when the president seems hesitant to publicly support the bill.
Discussing the problems with Obamacare, Ryan railed against the original mandate, which Tapper noted was originally a Republican idea to enforce “personal responsibility” and outlaw freeloaders, or “people who can afford health insurance but don’t buy it.”
“Why should poor schmucks like us, who actually buy health insurance, subsidize them?” Tapper asked.
Ryan waxed poetic about his healthcare plan, relying on talking points about “increasing choice” and providing “access” to more people, before insisting that the problem is that it takes “twelve sentences” to explain why the GOP plan will work.
Tapper then asked about waning support for the GOP healthcare plan, pressing the speaker about the Trump administration's apparent distancing from the House plan.
“You say that you and the White House are on the exact same page, how can you say that with all the distancing that we see?” Tapper asked, later repeating, “You really think that you and the White House are on the exact same page?”
Tapper noted that Trump failed to mention the plan Wednesday in Michigan. Ryan argued the president was making an announcement on cafe standards and didn’t want to “step all over that story with something on healthcare."
“Seems like a guy that can bring up more than one subject in a speech,” Tapper shot back.
Watch the interview below, via CNN:
Part 1--
Part 2--
