Lee on healthcare: Lumping too much into one bill dooms its chances

By Rebecca Savransky - 07/02/17 10:54 AM EDT
Lee on healthcare: Lumping too much into one bill dooms its chances
© Greg Nash

Sen. Mike LeeMichael (Mike) Shumway LeeHillicon Valley: Trump AG pick signals new scrutiny on tech giants | Wireless providers in new privacy storm | SEC brings charges in agency hack | Facebook to invest 0M in local news AG pick Barr wants closer scrutiny of Silicon Valley 'behemoths' Grassroots political participation is under attack in Utah and GOP is fighting back MORE (R-Utah) during an interview that aired Sunday warned that putting too much into one piece of legislation makes it more difficult for it to pass.

During an interview on CBS's "Face The Nation," Lee addressed the Senate healthcare bill, saying the government needs to "re-inject free market forces in this environment."

"If we can't get this done ... what we ought to do is ... push full repeal and then embark on an iterative step-by-step process to decide what comes next," he said.

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"If we passed a measure of repealing ObamaCare ... with the understanding that at that point after passing the repeal measure, we would undertake a step-by-step process of designing what comes next, I think it's easier."

He added that "sometimes when you lump too many things into one piece of legislation, you doom its likelihood of success."
 
Lee said he fears that might be the situation senators face today.
 
His comments come after the Senate's Republican leadership last week decided to delay a vote on their healthcare bill after it became clear it lacked the votes for passage.
 
President Trump last week tweeted that if Republicans senators are not able to pass the healthcare bill they are working on now, "they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date."
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