WASHINGTON _ After failing to land a deal on the health care bill, President Donald Trump on Friday blamed Democrats, even though the GOP controls Congress and the White House, and made few overtures across the aisle when pushing the bill.
"When you get no votes from the other side _ meaning Democrats _ it is really a difficult situation," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after a revolt by Republican lawmakers forced House leaders to stop a vote on their bid to overhaul the Affordable Care Act.
Trump insisted that the current health care law, commonly known as Obamacare, will collapse under its own weight, and then Democrats will want to make a deal with the White House.
"I truly believe the Democrats will come to us," Trump said.
In the meantime, Trump is moving his attention to pushing through a tax reform bill, he said.
"We will probably be going really hard for the big tax cuts and tax reform _ that's next," he said.
Trump, who has spent decades negotiating real estate deals and seeing many of them fall through, seemed sanguine discussing the effort he put into getting a health care reform bill passed.
"This was an interesting period of time," Trump said. "We learned a lot about loyalty and we learned a lot about the vote-getting process."
Trump stopped short of blaming House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., and avoided singling out the group of conservative Republican lawmakers, who dug in their heels in opposition.
Lawmakers in the House Freedom Caucus that largely stood against the bill are "very good people" and "friends of mind" he said.
"I was disappointed because we could have had it," he said. "I'm a little surprised," he said.
When asked by a reporter if he would reach out now to Democrats for ideas on how to get a deal, Trump said, "No, I think we need to let Obamacare go its way for a little while. Then we'll see how things go."
