WASHINGTON -- Republicans struggled with their divisions over health care Monday as President Donald Trump pressured GOP senators to act quickly and Vice President Mike Pence suggested they might have to revert to a straightforward "Obamacare" repeal if they can't agree on an alternative.
Consensus on a replacement continued to elude senators as they returned to the Capitol from their Fourth of July recess. Some lawmakers spent the break facing critics of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's bill, or voicing criticism of their own. But Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican, told reporters that a revised bill would be unveiled this week and that "the goal continues to be" to vote next week.
McConnell postponed a vote last month, lacking GOP support for the legislation.
To succeed, the new legislation will have to address the concerns of conservatives like Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas, who want a more full-blown repeal, and moderates like Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who want the opposite, a more generous bill.
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McConnell has little room for error as he tries to pass a bill with 50 GOP votes, with Pence as the tie-breaker, in a Senate that has 52 Republicans. Some GOP senators are questioning McConnell's partisan approach, and the majority leader himself acknowledged to a home-state audience in Kentucky last week that if he can't get the job done with Republicans alone, he'll have to turn to Democrats to shore up the market for individual insurance buyers.
Underscoring the divisions within the GOP, Pence appeared on conservative host Rush Limbaugh's radio show to rule out working with Democrats.
"The president's made it very clear. We believe if they can't pass this carefully crafted repeal and replace bill, do those two things simultaneously, we ought to just repeal only" and then turn to replacement legislation later, Pence said, although Trump has at times dangled the prospect of working with Democrats.
Few Republicans on Capitol Hill believe a repeal bill could pass Congress without a replacement.
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The vice president made his comments after Trump began his day with a tweet aimed at Senate Republicans: "I cannot imagine that Congress would dare to leave Washington without a beautiful new HealthCare bill fully approved and ready to go!"
Congress is beginning a three-week sprint before its traditional five-week August recess, which some lawmakers have suggested should be shortened or even canceled if they can't get health care done first.
The House passed health care legislation in May after struggles of its own to reach agreement. Both the House and Senate bills eliminate the Affordable Care Act's mandates for people to buy insurance, gradually undo an expansion of Medicaid, and reduce the size of the federal-state health care program for the poor and disabled. The measures would cut taxes for the wealthy.
Both bills would result in more than 20 million fewer people being on insurance rolls over the next decade.
Around 80 demonstrators opposed to the legislation were arrested around the Capitol complex Monday, according to U.S. Capitol Police.
About 10 protesters shouting slogans such as "health care is a human right" were led away from the corridor outside the office of Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.
Protesters also gathered at the offices of Sens. John Boozman, R-Ark., and Cory Gardner, R-Colo.
At least 13 of those arrested were from Arkansas, according to Kim Benyr, an activist from Bella Vista who accompanied the group but was not detained.
Eight were from Northwest Arkansas while the other five were from Little Rock, she added.
The Arkansans were arrested after protesting in Boozman's office. Activists last month held similar protests at fellow Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton's office on Capitol Hill.
Protesters chanted "Kill the bill, don't kill us," Benyr said.
The activists want to know whether Boozman supports or opposes the legislation that has been winding its way through Congress.
"He's not really taken a position either way. We're trying to get him to commit," Benyr said.
Boozman has said the Affordable Care Act isn't working and that the existing system needs to be changed. He has promised to work with his colleagues to come up with a better alternative.
Information for this article was contributed by Erica Werner, Alan Fram, Bruce Schreiner, Andrew Taylor and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of The Associated Press; and by Frank E. Lockwood of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 07/11/2017