--- title: The GOP's Daunting Path On Healthcare description: Senate Republicans face a difficult path to getting a healthcare bill done in the next month, as is their stated goal. canonical: https://time.com/4858227/the-gops-daunting-path-on-healthcare/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-14T16:09:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:23:24.551Z article:section: Politics og:title: The GOP's Daunting Path On Healthcare og:description: Senate Republicans face a difficult path to getting a healthcare bill done in the next month, as is their stated goal. og:url: https://time.com/4858227/the-gops-daunting-path-on-healthcare/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Morning Must Reads og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The GOP's Daunting Path On Healthcare twitter:description: Senate Republicans face a difficult path to getting a healthcare bill done in the next month, as is their stated goal. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The GOP's Daunting Path On Healthcare > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=aacfe2f3-3c2e-473e-b50b-9cc5f108b9ed&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump Defends His Son [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Defends His Son](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/igTeIxp0.m3u8) (2:01)  _Published 2017-07-13. President Donald Trump is defending his son after revelations that Donald Trump Jr. took a meeting with a Russian lawyer tied to the Kremlin. "Most people would have taken that meeting," the President said in a press conference Thursday in Paris._ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 14, 2017 4:09 PM UTC President Donald Trump is defending his son after revelations that Donald Trump Jr. took a meeting with a Russian lawyer tied to the Kremlin. "Most people would have taken that meeting," the President said in a press conference Thursday in Paris. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 14, 2017 4:09 PM UTC Senate Republicans face a daunting path to getting a healthcare bill done in the next month, as is their stated goal, with the GOP’s seven-year pledge to repeal Obamacare facing its toughest test yet. Inducements designed to win conservative support appear to be having the desired effect, but efforts to win over moderates in the Senate are as yet not paying off. It’s unclear if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell even has the votes to begin debate on the legislation—which will be an all-important test vote for the bill. House Republicans have been told to be on standby for possible votes on the Senate bill if it passes. But the House and Senate bills differ substantially, and expecting swift passage of the Senate bill in the House would be premature, given how difficult it was to pass the bill there the first time around. President Donald Trump’s travel ban suffered another legal setback Thursday night, as a federal court in Hawaii expanded the approved list exceptions to the travel restrictions from six Muslim-majority countries to include grandparents. The new policy, implemented after last month’s Supreme Court ruling, narrowed the injunction on implementing the executive order to those with “bona fide” connections to the U.S. Grandparents were left off the Trump administration’s policy, prompting the legal challenge. The validity of the order as a whole is set to be heard by the high court later this year. Trump expresses openness to inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House when the time is right. More details about the meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer last year are revealed, causing new headaches for the administration. And Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton speak out about the presidency. _Here are your must reads:_ **Must Reads** [Trump’s legal team faces tensions — and a client who often takes his own counsel](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-legal-team-faces-tensions--and-a-client-who-often-takes-his-own-counsel/2017/07/13/07361fc6-67eb-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.334034768ed3) As goes the White House goes the legal defense \[Washington Post\] [Former Soviet Counter Intelligence Officer at Meeting With Donald Trump Jr. and Russian Lawyer](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russian-lawyer-brought-ex-soviet-counter-intelligence-officer-trump-team-n782851) Latest revelation relating to June 2016 meeting. \[NBC\] [New Senate Republican Health Plan Struggles to Win Over Critics](http://time.com/4857372/gop-health-care-plan/) Even before McConnell was able to pitch a new draft, there was mutiny afoot \[TIME\] [Revised Senate Health Bill Tries to Win Votes, but Has Fewer Winners](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/13/upshot/revised-senate-bill-tries-to-win-votes-but-has-fewer-winners.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&%5Fr=0) More potential losers \[New York Times\] **Sound Off** “I’d say the only thing more difficult than peace between Israel and the Palestinians is healthcare.” —President Donald Trump to reporters late Wednesday on the way to Paris. “No, not joking, no. There is a chance that we can do a solar wall.” —Trump asked to confirm he was joking about emplacing solar panels on his ‘border wall’ **Bits and Bites** [Hawaii Judge Expands List of Relatives Exempt from Trump’s Travel Ban](http://time.com/4858084/hawaii-judge-relatives-exempt-travel-ban/) \[Associated Press\] [GOP Health Bill Steers Cash to the Home State of a Reluctant Senator](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-13/gop-health-bill-steers-cash-to-home-state-of-reluctant-senator) \[Bloomberg\] [Trump Lawyer Marc Kasowitz Threatens Stranger in Emails: ‘Watch Your Back , Bitch’](https://www.propublica.org/article/marc-kasowitz-trump-lawyer-threat-emails-maddow) \[ProPublica\] [Co-founder of firm behind Trump-Russia dossier will not testify before Senate next week](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/13/co-founder-of-firm-behind-trump-russia-dossier-will-not-testify-before-senate-next-week-240525) \[Politico\] [President Trump Tells Emmanuel Macron ‘Something Could Happen’ with Paris Climate Agreement](http://time.com/4858221/donald-trump-emmanuel-macron-paris-climate-agreement/) \[TIME\] [Presidents Bush and Clinton: Be humble in victory, responsible with power](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-presidents-idUSKBN19Z02N?utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=newsletter%5Faxiosam&stream=top-stories) \[Reuters\] [Forecast of weak economic growth raises big questions about Trump’s populist agenda](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/cbo-projects-19percent-economic-growth-under-trumps-plan/2017/07/13/a7099e72-67f2-11e7-9928-22d00a47778f%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.33a49b19aa22) \[Washington Post\] [GOP Activist Who Sought Hillary Clinton Emails Killed Himself](https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-activist-who-sought-clinton-emails-killed-self-1500002994) \[Wall Street Journal\] [Donald Trump Jr. and the History of Opposition Research From Foreign Sources](http://time.com/4855835/donald-trump-jr-foreign-oppo/) \[TIME\] ## Transcript [00:00] As far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful [00:03] young man, he took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, [00:08] not a government lawyer but a Russian lawyer, [00:12] it was a short meeting, it was a meeting that went [00:18] very very quickly, very fast, two other people in the [00:20] room they, I guess one of them left almost immediately [00:23] and the other one was not really focussed in the [00:26] meeting. I do think this, I think from a practical [00:29] standpoint most people would have taken that [00:32] meeting. It's called opposition research, or even [00:35] research into your opponent. I've had many people, I [00:38] have only been in politics for two years. But I've had [00:41] many people call up OG, we have information on this [00:45] factor or this person or, frankly, Hillary. That's [00:50] very standard in politics. Politics is not the nicest [00:53] business in the world but it's very standard where they [00:56] have information and you take the information. In the [00:58] case of Don, he listened Guess they talked about, [01:03] as I see it, they talked about adaption and some [01:05] things. Adaption wasn't even a part of the campaign. [01:09] But nothing happened from the meeting. Zero [01:11] happened from the meeting. And honestly, I think the [01:13] press made a very big deal over something that really, [01:17] a lot of people would do. Now, the lawyer that went to [01:21] the meeting, I see that she was in the halls of Congress [01:24] Also, somebody said that her visa, [01:29] or her passport, to come into the country, was [01:32] approved by Attorney General Lynch. Now maybe [01:35] that's wrong, I just heard that a little while ago, but it's [01:37] a little surprise to hear that, so she was here because [01:40] of Lynch. So, again. I have [01:44] a son who's a great young man, he's a fine person, he [01:47] took a meeting with a lawyer from Russia. It lasted [01:51] for a very short period, and nothing came of the [01:54] meeting. And I think it's a meeting that most people in [01:58] politics probably would have taken ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4858227/the-gops-daunting-path-on-healthcare/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4858227/the-gops-daunting-path-on-healthcare/"},"headline":"The GOP's Daunting Path On Healthcare","datePublished":"2017-07-14T16:09:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:23:24.551Z","description":"Morning Must Reads: July 14","url":"https://time.com/4858227/the-gops-daunting-path-on-healthcare/","keywords":["Morning Must Reads"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Morning Must Reads","caption":"Capitol","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4858227/the-gops-daunting-path-on-healthcare/","name":"The GOP's Daunting Path On Healthcare"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump Defends His Son","description":"President Donald Trump is defending his son after revelations that Donald Trump Jr. took a meeting with a Russian lawyer tied to the Kremlin. \"Most people would have taken that meeting,\" the President said in a press conference Thursday in Paris.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/igTeIxp0/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-07-13T18:05:26.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/igTeIxp0.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4858227/the-gops-daunting-path-on-healthcare/","duration":"PT2M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4858227/the-gops-daunting-path-on-healthcare/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```