WASHINGTON (AP) — Abdul El-Sayed proposed “TrumpCare,” a golden insurance card offering universal health care, dangling the president’s name in the ambitious Democratic plan.
James Talarico suggested that Donald Trump could become a history-maker like Lyndon B. Johnson, who was considered a master of deal-making in Congress.
And even Hakeem Jeffries, vying to become Speaker of the House in January, has left the door open to working with the other side of the aisle “wherever and whenever possible” to meet the expectations of the American people.
Some Democrats who rose to power thanks to voters’ reaction to Trump are now proposing ways to collaborate with the president, playing on his vanity and love of making deals to propel their own agenda.
Not everyone in the party is on the same page, but the offers represent a strategy to show the party is serious about the hard work of legislation and recognize that Trump’s signature is needed for new laws.
Trump himself has said he doesn’t want to spend the last two years of his presidency simply vetoing bills from Democrats who control Congress. Only a few years ago, during his first term, Trump stunned Republicans by striking deals with Democratic leaders he called “Chuck and Nancy” — Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Democrats appeal to Trump’s vanity
Before the next Congress begins in January, Democrats are trying to lure Trump with the prospect of timeless glory for a president determined to make his mark on Washington.
All he has to do, they say, is work with them to implement radical policies like Medicare for All.
“Donald, this is on the table. Guaranteeing health care for all Americans, from cradle to grave,” El-Sayed, who won the U.S. Senate race in Michigan after Trump called him a terrorist sympathizer, wrote on social media.
He attached mock-ups of a gold card, with Trump’s name and signature much more prominent than the small text reading “Medicare for All.”
Universal health care has long been anathema to Republicans, although Congress — and even the Republican president himself — will face pressure to address rising costs.
“If putting Trump’s name on it and putting it in gold letters would get it through, then yes, I’m for it,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin, El-Sayed’s Michigan Democratic colleague, said Friday.
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About 6 in 10 voters nationally said the federal government should play a bigger role than it currently does in helping Americans get health care, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 midterm voters.
The costs of expanding Medicare to cover more people would depend on scope, and Democrats have considered plans that include lowering the eligibility age below 65 or including children and youth. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2022 that various so-called single-payer options could increase federal health care subsidies from $1.5 trillion to $3 trillion by 2030, while total patient-paid out-of-pocket costs would decline.
Trump’s willingness to pursue prolonged negotiations with Democrats is an open question, and his past negotiating promises have been hit or miss. He reiterated Thursday his desire to work with Democrats.
“I’m going to veto a lot of things that they’re going to send me initially that are bad for the country, and I think eventually they’re going to call, they’re going to say, ‘Let’s make a deal,’ and we can make deals on health care, on drug prices,” the president told commentator Stephen A. Smith in an interview.
Trump’s choice of Stephen Miller as his new White House chief of staff, however, could rule out some of those opportunities. Jeffries described Miller as a “die-hard racist” and said he had “no interest” in working with him.
The Democrats’ arguments continue to flow
Speeches from some of the most high-profile Democratic newcomers in Washington will help shape the party’s approach for the rest of Trump’s presidency.
Talarico, the Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas, described how Johnson is memorialized at the Capitol and remembered for shaping civil rights and social services as a senator and president.
“If President Trump wants the same plaques, portraits and busts as LBJ, we can help make that a reality,” Talarico said Thursday at the What’s Next conference in Denver, where many Democrats have gathered to chart their path forward.
Talarico made his speech to both Democrats and Trump. After getting the total rejection of Trump they’ve been seeking for a decade, the party’s base voters may not be eager to see their newly elected leaders stand alongside him for a bipartisan signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden that he paved over to create a patio resembling his Mar-a-Lago resort.
However, Talarico said Americans are counting on bold changes before the next president takes office, after Trump’s second term ends.
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“Some of these reforms may not be enacted until 2029, but the American people cannot wait two years to see change,” he said. “So we have to work with President Trump.”
The willingness to work with Trump is notable among El-Sayed and Talarico, who were among the president’s most frequent targets as he hopscotched the country to Republicans ahead of the midterm elections. He targeted them for particularly personal attacks, questioning El-Sayed’s loyalty to the United States and calling the Texan “Talafreako.”
Talarico’s speech aimed at helping Trump make his final two years in office “the most productive of any presidency in American history” received a cold reception from current and future Democratic governors who took the same stage the next day.
Democrats should pass bills they believe will help Americans live better lives and challenge him to veto them, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said.
“Frankly, he likes attention,” Spanberger said. “Eventually he’ll want to have a signing ceremony, and eventually he’ll sign a few.”
Cooper reported from Phoenix.
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