By Joseph Tanfani

Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With Republicans having failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Donald Trump confirmed Saturday that he has again asked Democrats to make a deal. They remain wary, at best.

“I called Chuck Schumer yesterday to see if the Dems want to do a great HealthCare Bill,” Trump said Saturday in a Twitter post, referring to the Senate Democratic leader.

The president’s message, posted just before he headed for his Virginia golf club, reflected his continued frustration with his own party’s failures to keep its 7-year-old promise to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement. He has flirted with a deal with Democrats before, only to return to Republicans’ position that the law has to be scrapped.

That’s a nonstarter with Democrats, who say the law needs improvements but is working, even as the administration is taking actions that amount to “sabotage.”

Schumer, in response, made it clear that he and Trump weren’t about to embrace on a health care plan.

“The president wanted to make another run at repeal and replace and I told the president that’s off the table,” Schumer wrote Saturday on Twitter. “If he wants to work together to improve the existing health care system, we Democrats are open to his suggestions.”

Schumer said “a good place to start” was the bipartisan effort led by two senators, Republican Lamar Alexander from Tennessee and Democrat Patty Murray of Washington, who are the chairman and senior Democrat, respectively, of the Senate’s health committee. Schumer said a deal “would stabilize the system and lower costs.”

The Alexander-Murray talks were shelved last month while Senate Republican leaders pursued their latest effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But they couldn’t attract a majority behind a bill, and legislation was never brought to a vote. Republican leaders say they will keep trying, though many Republicans say the effort is doomed and they want to focus on tax cuts.