Huckabee: Senate GOP ‘on the pathway to making some major blunders’ with healthcare bill

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) on Monday questioned the healthcare bill unveiled by Senate Republicans, saying GOP lawmakers in the upper chamber appear to be “on the pathway to making some major blunders” with the measure.

“Something that is worse than not getting it down quickly is getting it down wrong. And I think they could be on the pathway to making some major blunders,” Huckabee said on Fox Business Network.

The Senate rolled out a new healthcare bill last week that repeals and replaces key ObamaCare provisions, including major cuts to Medicaid.

{mosads}The Arkansas governor on Monday drew parallels compared the Senate healthcare bill, one passed by the House and ObamaCare to “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”

“If this were a fairy tale, it would be ‘Goldilocks and the three bills’ — ObamaCare, the House version and the Senate version. And at this point, none of them are ‘just right.’ They are all either ‘too hot’ or ‘too cold’ and in part because both sides are looking at this trying to make it an ideological bill rather than a practical, pragmatic bill,” he continued.

Huckabee questioned the end game of the Senate bill, saying it does not accomplish what President Trump promised on the campaign trail.

“If the end game is to save money, then the Republicans might be on the right track. But that’s not the game Donald Trump campaigned on and it is not the endgame that Americans care most about. They want access to affordable and realistic healthcare,” he said.

“I think Republicans are going to have to suck it up and say, ‘This isn’t going to get a lot cheaper, it can’t, it won’t,’” Huckabee said, adding that the legislation “doesn’t say what the end game is.”

Huckabee also cautioned that the costs of Medicaid and other provisions under the healthcare bill would financially hurt states across the U.S.

“Unless you give some cost controls on the Medicaid program it will bankrupt every state,” he added.