Washington Free Beacon contributing editor Daniel Halper appeared Thursday on Fox News' "America's Newsroom," where he said that Democrats are "feeling pressure" to prevent Republicans from doing anything on health care.
Host Shannon Bream opened the segment by highlighting major deadlines that Congress faces in September, including the debt ceiling and the expiration of the Federal Aviation Administration authorization, when they return from the August recess.
Halper mentioned there is chatter that Republicans will pivot to tax reform and lowering people's taxes or come back to the table on health care reform after the August recess, but he said there is little time with the upcoming deadlines.
"As you point out, there actually isn't any time to do any of those things because all of these other authorizations and funding runs out, and they have to take care of the housekeeping stuff before they can get to the other things," Halper said. "So there isn't much urgency on Capitol Hill."
"Is there added pressure do you think on both sides now to get something done?" Bream asked. "Who is going to pay for this in the mid-terms if they don't find a resolution on health care?"
Halper said that Republicans are the only ones feeling pressure to get something done on health care, but he said that Democrats are feeling pressure to prevent anything from happening.
"With that said, [Democrats] do want to introduce their own reforms and their own ideas, so that they can say they have been standing for something and lay their groundwork for the 2018 and 2020 elections," Halper said." If they can actually put forward substantive reforms [and] substantive legislation, I think it gives them some sort of platform."
"They need something that they can actually stand for," Halper added.