Trump caught saying Senate health care bill lacks "heart" after calling House bill "mean"

CNBC reports that during a closed-door meeting with top technology CEOs, Trump admitted the Senate health care legislation needs “more heart.” Those comments echo Trump’s characterization of the House health care bill as “mean.”

Despite these admissions about the overwhelmingly negative contents of the bills, Trump, along with Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, continue to push for passage so that they can claim the major legislative achievement that they lack.

Senate Republicans have kept the text of their bill a complete secret, while hammering out the details only among a group of 13 Republican men — and no women — and without holding public hearings.

What details have emerged are plans to emulate much of the House bill’s provisions, resulting in at least 23 million losing their health insurance, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

As Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon described the Senate version, “They may put cosmetic changes on it, but the lipstick they’re putting on this pig is just making it messier.”

Reports indicate that the Senate bill could build on the House bill’s Medicaid cuts, leaving even more vulnerable Americans out in the cold.

Trump’s statement that the Senate bill lacks “heart” is certainly true. But instead of urging a more compassionate path forward for his party, Trump is only making these admissions in quiet rooms, away from public scrutiny, while publicly denouncing Democrats for not wanting to assist Republicans in their destruction of our health care system.

As Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor of the Senate, “President Trump doesn’t want the American people to know what he really thinks of their health care plan.” That’s why Trump’s comments that it is “mean” and needs “heart” have been said behind closed doors while, as Schumer notes, Trump has publicly called it “a great plan” and “very, very incredibly well-crafted.” He is far less flattering of the GOP plan in private though.

“Behind closed doors,” Schumer added, Trump says “what is really is — mean.”