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Obamacare Replacement Bill Now Lacks Votes to Pass; Update: McConnell to Introduce Straight Repeal Bill
Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) announced Monday night that they will not support the GOP bill to “repeal and replace” ObamaCare. With the previous defections of Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Rand Paul (R-KY), the bill no longer has enough votes to pass.
“In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes,” Lee said, “it doesn’t go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations.”
Moran agreed and released his own statement via Twitter.
My full statement opposing this version of BCRA: pic.twitter.com/CUq4Kibe0I
— Jerry Moran (@JerryMoran) July 18, 2017
What do you think McConnell’s next move should be?
Update: Well, McConnell’s made his move…
My statement on an upcoming vote to repeal #Obamacare pic.twitter.com/RdyDiUJfMD
— Leader McConnell (@SenateMajLdr) July 18, 2017
A straight repeal, identical to the one passed in 2015, will put several GOP senators in a very awkward spot. They were fine with the pose as long as an Obama veto was assured, but now they’ll be playing with real money. Because of this, it’s possible that McConnell is talking about a straight repeal vote to scare a couple Republicans back to the bargaining table.
Published in Healthcare, Politics
If you chose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
Advocate going full socialist and nationalizing the hospitals. Fifty percent chance that the news shows start pushing free market reforms just to spite Republicans.
Retire.
What the heck does that mean? That it did not repeal enough of the Obamacare regulations?
Here we have too much purity, conservative Senators letting something unknown that can’t be passed be enemy of something better than what we have now.
Unless there’s been a significant change -there’s been several proposed amendments -it didn’t repeal any of them. It gave broad power to the states to waive the regulations so long as they achieved improvements on the various metrics. However, they then maintained the regulatory requirements for “essential care,” “guaranteed issue,” and “community rating” which are the major drivers of the regulatory burden.
So, translate this as “the major regulations that everyone hates are being left in place -but the little ones that no one cares about except rich lobbyists -those have miraculously disappeared.”
Mike Lee (R-UT) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) together — that way neither one takes all of the blame as the person who killed the Obamacare repeal?
Idiots.
Purity?
These are senators announcing that they’re not going to vote for a wildly unpopular garbage bill that doesn’t keep the promises were made, nor does it solve the problems it’s claimed to solve. Purity doesn’t enter in to it.
Trump can’t sign a bill which doesn’t get passed and never reaches his desk. Nevertheless, cue the chorus saying he can’t get anything done.
Wait. I thought he was an amazing deal maker. It’s he a master negotiator? Didn’t he say he could get things done?
Or is it possible that, as usual, he had no idea what he was talking about and was making promises he couldn’t keep?
Fred, this news may stun you, but the GOP has been talking up repealing Obamacare since 2010, long before Trump was on the scene.
I think it’s a reference to the Cruz amendment which would have given states and insurance companies a lot of flexibility to work around ObamaCare’s regulations. A watered down version of it was in the bill and Lee was pretty adamant in insisting it didn’t go far enough.
McConnell is a cagey son of a gun. Let’s see how this plays out – when it doubt don’t bet against the master parliamentarian.
But the last I checked Republican Senators and Representatives were not putting words in trump’s mouth. He was.
Perhaps the lesson should be to not promise what you cannot keep (something trump supporters are keen to push on Congressional Republicans). Some Republicans may not want to pass obamacare lite but that doesn’t make them liars, if the purpose of repeal is to remove what was wrong then the current bill does not do that.
Precisely. You pass this and you suddenly become responsible for the mess Obama left in his wake, without having done much to remedy it. Given the media environment we live in, I’d rather not. You put an (R) on this mess and make people wallow in it for a while and the media/socialist/democrat complex gets a clear shot hanging the mess on us and going full throttle toward the “solution” of pure socialized medicine.
I’d prefer a repeal now and the hard work of fixing later. This bill is done for. Sadly repeal/replace was O care light for people serious about spiraling costs and eventual socialism.
The medical system is more in favor of government control than ever before.
The AMA , insurance industry , pharma industry , and other special interests have been very active.
A malpractice reform bill is creeping through the senate , passed in the house along mostly party lines. The dems will vote against it since they like their docs both slaves and villains.
Special interests wrote Obamacare so maybe a better solution will come from a fresher start. I am disappointed in all of our leaders.
He hasn’t exactly lead on the issue. This is the clown who threw the house republicans under the bus by calling their bill “mean” after he pressed them to pass it and held a rose garden ceremony to celebrate the vote to pass it. Senate republicans could be forgiven for doubting he has their back. Hell, they could be forgiven for doubting he’ll sign what they send him.
To add to that, he’s shown no sign that he has a clue what’s going on. Again, he’s the clown who got to the White House and then announced that this was “hard” after campaigning on the claim that it was easy and that the mess would be fixed if Congress wasn’t so full of losers.
Seriously, the “can’t get anything done” chorus has more than enough to sing about.
Ryan and McConnell should have had this crap figured out 7 months ago. Does Trump get some blame ? Yep. So do the dems and special interests but the freaking pros can’t handle the issue they chest pounded about.
Freaking repeal now or just make us socialized.
Oh c’mon Fred, get off it – that was campaign rhetoric – like lowering the oceans, or…
That was Donald Trump’s brand: the deal maker. That’s what he was elected on. And over and over the defense of Donald Trump for his … everything is that “he fights.”
Well, he didn’t fight here and he didn’t cut deals. In fact, other than occasionally showing up to either say how complicated this is or to throw Republicans under the bus for being “mean,” he’s been absent. He’s been too busy picking pointless fights or trying to clean up messes he’s created for himself or whatever the hell else he’s does with his days to do anything here.
Correct me if I’m wrong in this…but I distinctly recall Trump promising that HIS plan would cover everyone, cost less and allow you to see the doctor of your choice. It was going to be a great plan, wonderful plan, we were all going to love it. It was going to be easy Happen day one.
Well. Where is it?
Howza’bout this…lets just extend Senatorial and Congressional healthcare insurance to the rest of us?
Repeal Obamacare. That has been the promise for many years. It’s why the democrats have been thrown out everywhere.
If they don’t repeal it, there will be civil unrest.
Complain, complain, complain, and then lose. That’s the left-libertarian brand.
Reverse psychology I like it.
As long as the government is involved, it will be expensive, bureaucratic, and not serve our needs, regardless of who is in charge. Just repeal it. I don’t want a replacement.
No one talks about freedom anymore. Or the responsibility that freedom requires. As a culture we have surrendered freedom through the constant barrage of socialist agitprop for generations.
We need to start demanding our freedom and repeal Obamacare completely. Follow on legislation can help ease the transition of the government out of the insurance business.
This republican reluctance to embrace the freedom they occasionally mention is based on their wish for money and control of the insurance industry. Maybe if we paid congressmen a salary approaching their power level they might be less apt to be corrupt.
Nah. Who am I kidding? As long as they have these unconstitutional powers they will continue to be corrupt.
This is how you get Democrats on board with doing something: Trump announces that the original PPACA will be enforced exactly as written. The employer mandate is back, all exemptions are cancelled, the whole ugly thing will be in force in 6 months so they better get busy coming up with something else.
The only thing McConnell is a master at is getting nothing accomplished while still getting re-elected. He is the poster boy for RINOs everywhere and the central cause of Republican problems. He is the Establishment Trump ran against.