Toomey calls health care setback ‘devastating,’ vows tax reform

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., believes there are two agenda items that Republicans have to get done — health care and tax reform — in order to keep the GOP’s major promises to the American people.

If efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act are any indication, the GOP may have a long road ahead to find party unity or to compromise across the aisle.

Toomey discussed his mission Friday at a roundtable event with about 20 local business leaders in a Glenn O. Hawbaker conference room.

“The setback we had last week was devastating, but we’ve spent seven years making a promise to the American people that we were going to relieve our country of this debacle that Obamacare is,” he said. “In my view, that hasn’t changed. Obamacare is as bad today as it was before this vote. So, we’ve got to get there whether it’s through a series of bills or all at once. We can’t give up on this.”

There is reason to be “somewhat hopeful” that health care reform will be passed, Toomey said. The Senate’s latest attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare fell short by a single vote to have a 50-50 draw, which would likely have been broken by Vice President Mike Pence with a passing vote.

Toomey also called the country’s tax code “ridiculous and indefensible.”

Given that President Donald Trump would likely sign Republican-backed tax reform and that the Senate has a mechanism to pass tax reform with a simple majority, Toomey said there is no excuse not to successfully pass a bill on tax reform.

“I will admit that the health care debate sucked most of the oxygen out of every room in Washington for the last six months,” Toomey said.

The senator also said discussions have already begun on tax reform to get the Senate, House of Representatives and the White House on the same page. Their goal is to have a well-defined tax reform plan in September and to have a bill signed into law by the end of the year.

Multiple business leaders questioned the Republican Party’s ability to compromise with each other.

Hotel State College CEO Joe Shulman said it seems like the Democratic Party unifies through “thick and thin” and the Republican Party is “fragmented.”

“All of these changes that are great ideas, I don’t think are going to be able to develop on a reasonable timeline until the Republicans can all get together and work off the same sheet of music,” Shulman said.

Toomey noted that there is a wide ideological range in the party — from libertarians such as Sen. Rand Paul, of Kentucky, to moderates such as Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine — making it hard to “thread a needle to hold everyone together.”

While the party will continue to work on health care, he said, there is broad agreement on the principles of tax reform.

“That doesn’t mean (tax reform) is easy,” Toomey said. “The details really matter, and it’s going to be a real hard slog. I guess one way to answer your question is that everyone feels like we really, really blew it on health care last week, and we can’t do that on tax reform.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2017 at 2:03 PM with the headline "Toomey calls health care setback ‘devastating,’ vows tax reform."