'SPITEFUL, POINTLESS SABOTAGE': Democrats excoriate Trump's move to cancel Obamacare payments

Top Democrats scolded President Donald Trump on Thursday night after the White House announced the president would end cost-sharing reduction payments (CSR), a crucial Obamacare subsidy designed to help low-income, working families.

The cost-sharing reduction payments were designed to offset the cost to insurers that offer affordable health plans to poor Americans. Without the subsidy, insurers would likely have to raise premiums.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement Thursday night: "Sadly, instead of working to lower health costs for Americans, it seems President Trump will single-handedly hike Americans' health premiums."

Pelosi and Schumer called the move a "spiteful act of vast, pointless sabotage leveled at working families and the middle class in every corner of America."

"Make no mistake about it, Trump will try to blame the Affordable Care Act, but this will fall on his back and he will pay the price for it," the statement read.

It is Trump's latest attempt to dismantle Obamacare, the law also known as the Affordable Care Act. It follows months of failed attempts by the Republican-led Congress to develop a suitable replacement for Obamacare, which had been a key plank of Trump's agenda.

Trump has publicly bristled over his party's failure to get a healthcare bill to his desk and has previously threatened to take unilateral steps to undermine former President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement.

Read the Schumer-Pelosi statement in full below:

"Sadly, instead of working to lower health costs for Americans, it seems President Trump will single-handedly hike Americans' health premiums. It is a spiteful act of vast, pointless sabotage leveled at working families and the middle class in every corner of America. Make no mistake about it, Trump will try to blame the Affordable Care Act, but this will fall on his back and he will pay the price for it.

"President Trump has apparently decided to punish the American people for his inability to improve our health care system. Trumpcare collapsed because Americans overwhelmingly recognized the cruelty and higher costs it meant for them and their loved ones. Now, millions of hard-working American families will suffer just because President Trump wants them to.

"If these reports are true, the President is walking away from the good faith, bipartisan Alexander-Murray negotiations and risking the health care of millions of Americans."