Last Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted to those who were attending a day dinner that trying to get Republican senators to vote on his Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) was like trying to solve a Rubix Cube. This was only a few days after McConnell made a statement saying that he would not be getting a vote for the bill before breaking for the July 4 recess. McConnell had already had a series of revolts from within his party of senators who said they would not be voting for his bill for a variety of reasons.
Shoving McConnell around
But President Trump decided to provide his solution to the problem saying that the Senate should just go ahead and repeal Obamacare -- otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- and come back to replace it later, but McConnell has already dismissed this as a solution. The White House, however, refused to let this go and would continue to suggest this into the weekend. It was reported that Marc Short, Trump's legislative director, said on Sunday that if the Senate were not able to pass their replacement bill after returning from recess, that they should simply repeal the ACA.
Initially, when the new Congress was assembling at the beginning of the year, they revealed that repealing the ACA would be their first priority but were slammed for it, as they would be taking health care away from millions of Americans.
Returning to a full repeal would be a return to their initial agenda. Mitch McConnell had already told the White House to stay out of their legislation for their bill before he would reveal it on June 22.
Mitch fights back against Trump's suggestions
The White House's suggestion to a full repeal seem to go against McConnell's demands.
Over the week before the recess, McConnell and other Republicans went against the President for a variety of issues, the first being with Trump's attack ad against Sen. Dean Heller, (R-NV) which McConnell reportedly referred to as "stupid" and said as much to Trump. It was reported from this that the White House backed off.
Sen. Heller is one of the nine Republicans who said they would not vote for the BCRA.
Trump would then launch a incendiary attack against a MSNBC host which caused other Republicans to say that the attack from Twitter was below the presidency. But President Trump continued despite requests from his own party members to stop. This would appear to be a similar situation with the White House's request to repeal Obamacare. President Trump's fluctuating views on the Health Care Bill indicates that he knows little about it and thus far has refused to concern himself with the details. Without that kind of support, it's viewed that Mitch McConnell is very much alone with putting both his bill together and trying to get it passed in the Senate.