The failure to pass a bill gutting Obamacare shouldn’t be laid on the Freedom Caucus, but on House Speaker Paul Ryan’s rushed process to get the bill done, according to Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
Cotton’s comments come a few days after the American Health Care Act was pulled after a lack of support from the conservative House Freedom Caucus and GOP moderates. The bill was introduced by Ryan on March 6, and Cotton was rankled by the quick move to vote on it.
“I think the House moved a bit too fast,” he said on Face the Nation Sunday. He added that “18 days is not enough time for such landmark legislation.”
Cotton repeatedly called for the GOP to slow down on the bill, which Republicans had hoped to bring up on Thursday in connection with the seventh anniversary of Obamacare.
Cotton added that Democrats took 14 months to pass Obamacare.
“I am not saying we needed 14 months to do this,” he said. “But a more careful and deliberative approach … would have gotten us further down the path to a solution.”
