8 House Republicans stand with Dems to condemn Trump's health care strategy

WASHINGTON – After President Donald Trump vowed to make health care a top 2020 campaign issue, Democrats said: Game on.

Tuesday, Trump told the campaign arm of House Republicans that the party would get “clobbered” in next year’s election if it failed to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The next day, House Democrats pushed their GOP colleagues to say whether they stand with Trump on the issue.

Eight House Republicans voted Wednesday for the Democrats' resolution condemning Trump for asking the courts to throw out the ACA.

One Democrat – Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, who voted against the law's passage in 2010 – opposed the resolution, which passed 240-186.

“Once again, House Republicans have shown that they are full accomplices in President Trump’s campaign to destroy protections for people with preexisting conditions and take away Americans’ health care," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said after the vote.

Republicans dismissed the move as a political stunt.

“It is like every week, there has to be a resolution on the floor to condemn the president, something he said or did, not a policy proposal that will actually solve the nation’s problems,” said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.

Trump is eager to engage.

“This will be a great campaign issue,” Trump tweeted hours before the vote.

Trump said Republicans – who were unable to agree on a replacement health care plan when they controlled the House and the Senate – will have another go.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., shot that down Tuesday.

“I made it clear to him we were not going to be doing that in the Senate,” McConnell said. Instead, he said, Republicans would focus on narrower health care measures – such as reducing the cost of prescription drugs.

Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that he never asked McConnell to vote on a comprehensive plan before the 2020 elections. “But only after the Election when we take back the House etc.,” he tweeted.

Speaking to the National Republican Congressional Committee Tuesday night, Trump said Republicans should not run away from the issue.

“They have health care right now,” Trump said, referring to the Democrats, “and we have to take that away from them.”

The eight Republicans who voted for the Democrats' resolution include three of the 20 Republicans who opposed House Republicans' ACA alternative in 2017: Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, New York Rep. John Katko and New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith.

Fitzpatrick and Katko, along with Michigan Rep. Fred Upton, who also voted for the resolution Wednesday, are among the Republicans whom Democrats are targeting for defeat in 2020.

After the vote, the campaign arm of House Democrats moved to shore up the party's own potentially vulnerable House members by launching Facebook ads in swing districts praising the incumbents for voting for the resolution. The ads signal how important the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee expects health care – the issue that helped the party capture the House last year – will be in 2020.

Voters trust Democrats more than Republicans on health care, according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll out Wednesday.

Although Republicans had a slight advantage on the issue after the 2016 election, Democrats leaped out front after Republicans’ unsuccessful attempt to repeal and replace the ACA.

In the most recent survey, conducted at the end of March after the Trump administration backed a full repeal of the law in court, voters were asked how much trust they placed in Trump or congressional Republicans to protect or improve the health care system. Nearly three of five voters said “not much” or “none at all.”

A slight majority said they had “a lot” or “some” trust in Democrats.

Though most Republicans have an unfavorable view of the ACA overall, according to the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, even GOP majorities like individual provisions. Those include the law’s protections for people with preexisting health conditions; an expanded Medicare drug benefit; subsidies for people who buy insurance on their own; expanded Medicaid eligibility for participating states; and allowing young adults to remain on their parents' insurance plans.

“It is widely accepted that a renewed debate about repeal hands Democrats a powerful new political opportunity,” the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Drew Altman and Mollyann Brodie wrote in an Axios piece published Wednesday. “Deeper in the polling, it's also clear that’s it's more of a mixed bag for Republicans than President Trump may realize.”

Contributing: John Fritze

More: Trump tells Republican lawmakers they'll get 'clobbered' if they don't overhaul Obamacare

More: End of Obamacare? President Donald Trump resumes an old battle. Here's why.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 8 House Republicans stand with Dems to condemn Trump's health care strategy