President Meets With Conservative Leaders to Sell American Health Care Act

President Donald Trump met with conservative leaders on Wednesday to discuss the republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.

The president met with David McIntosh of Club for Growth, Jim DeMint of The Heritage Foundation, Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity, Adam Brandon of FreedomWorks, Mike Needham of Heritage Action, and Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots to understand their concerns on republicans American Health Care Act.

Wednesday night, the President and First Lady entertained Senator and Mrs. Cruz for dinner at the White House after the Senator had told reporters earlier that the current bill could not pass the Senate as it is, but that he is ” optimistic” that differences could be resolved.

Since its unveiling on Monday, the republican plan has received staunch criticism from conservatives who believe the plan does not completely repeal Obamacare, replaces Obamacare’s subsidies with a new entitlement, penalizes those that fail to keep constant coverage and doesn’t pull back the Medicaid expansion immediately.

Some conservatives are pushing for all-or-nothing instead of taking advice from former Reagan economic advisor Art Laffer who told them to get what they can immediately and push for more afterward.

“The tax on earnings is gone. The tax on medical devices is gone,” Laffer told LifeZette on Wednesday. “This is so much better than Obamacare.”

Laffer said he didn’t get everything he wanted when he advised President Ronald Reagan on the 1981 tax cuts. Over time, the GOP “cleaned house” in the 1986 tax reform, the last significant tax reform.

“Life is not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” Laffer said from his Nashville office.

As the American Health Care Act will affect 1/5th of the American economy, getting it done in phases and making adjustments as it unfolds may be a better approach than Democrats’ all-at-once Obamacare debacle that is now in a full death spiral.