![Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, in Oval Office. / [Image by the White House via Flickr, Public Domain]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/9/24/660x290/b_502x220x82/secretary-of-health-and-human-services-tom-price-in-oval-office-image-by-the-white-house-via-flickr-public-domain_1595273.jpg "Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, in Oval Office. / [Image by the White House via Flickr, Public Domain]")
From the time that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced another effort to repeal Obamacare - otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) - many already sensed that the latest effort would fail. That sentiment became a reality on Monday when Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and two other Republican senators said they would vote "no" on the bill. There was a final "cave in" of "no's" by more senators on Tuesday, including Jeff Flake (R-AZ).
Price's responsibility for dooming latest repeal bill
While the President has blamed Republicans and Democrats throughout the year, every time a repeal has failed, he has also said that he would not take any responsibility for failing to repeal the ACA.
This is despite the fact that the administration had aggressively tried to garner support for the bill, while likely having more to do with dooming it at the same time. Prior to reports that the latest repeal effort was dead, some White House officials were already blaming the President's Secretary of Health and Human Services, tom price.
In Politico's report: "Price traveled by private plane at least 24 times", it referred to one official who said that many private charter flights Price had taken over the past week, had nothing to do with getting support to repeal Obamacare. The article wrote about Tom Price's use of taxpayer money to take those private planes, which is now under review by the department's inspector general.
Over the last two weeks, Price had traveled to Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and even the repeal hold-out state of Maine.
Tom Price not promoting Obamacare repeal
But those officials who spoke with Politico acknowledged that they didn't know what Price was doing. The article states that the Secretary has been traveling around the country, specifically to talk about the opioid epidemic.
A White House aide said that in their final push to frantically get support for the repeal bill, they looked around for Tom Price and said that he was nowhere to be found.
Acting dodgy around flight questions
Prior to this, Politico reported on September 19 that Price had taken private jets for five different flights between Sept.
13 and 15. At the time, the report said that the travel amounted to tens of thousands of dollars more than what commercial flights charged.
The Secretary refused to comment when the reports were being circulated. Even after the article was published, however, the same media source reported on Thursday that Price had taken yet another private jet the day before, indicating that even though he was aware of the reports, he was obviously ignoring them.
The article also reported that on Wednesday, the Secretary's staff cut a press conference with Price short as reporters started asking about the flights. So far, it's been estimated that Tom Price has used more than $400,000 dollars in taxpayer money for those flights since May.
Last Saturday, Tom Price told Fox News that he would stop using private jets pending a review from the inspector general. The Secretary had himself been known to be a hardcore conservative for government spending, but his expensive flights show different.
