Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, outlined the Republican Party’s position ahead of the meeting with the president later in the day, telling reporters that “the goal of today’s lunch is to keep the whole team together to make sure we don’t have any weak links.”
When asked when the president should get directly involved in the shutdown, Marshall said “if I’ve learned one thing from President Trump, it’s timing, and he’ll know when the time is right.”
“And it’s not there yet,” Marshall added.
The Kansas Republican said that “any time Democrats want to defund the government, we’re happy to sit down and fix the ACA.”
Democrats have demanded an extension of health insurance tax credits to reopen the government. Marshall, a physician, said Democrats must be prepared to address “at least three major issues” in health care, highlighting fraud, the cost of premiums and high deductibles.
“So it’s a very broken system, it’s going to take weeks to figure out how to fix it,” he added.
Marshall called the lack of funding a “political shutdown.” He said: “I’m not sure who is winning the political war at the moment, the messages, but we are certainly happy with the current situation.”
