Reading News 4U: GOP health bill all but dead; McCain again deals the blow
Friday, September 22, 2017
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GOP health bill all but dead; McCain again deals the blow
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Sen. John McCain declared his opposition Friday to the GOP's
last-ditch effort to repeal and replace "Obamacare," dealing a likely
death blow to the legislation and, perhaps, to the Republican Party's
years of vows to kill the program.
"I
cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal," McCain
said in a statement, referring to the bill by Sens. Lindsey Graham of
South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. His opposition likely
leaves the bill at least one vote short of the support needed for
passage.
Related SearchesNew GOP Health Care BillSenate Health Care BillRepublican Health Care BillSen. Bill Cassidy
"I
believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats,
and have not yet really tried," McCain said. "Nor could I support it
without knowing how much it will cost, how it will affect insurance
premiums, and how many people will be helped or hurt by it."
McCain
was the decisive vote against the GOP's last repeal effort, in July.
Once again, the 81-year-old senator, battling brain cancer in the
twilight of a remarkable career, emerged as the destroyer of his party's
signature promise to voters.
President
Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have both been
pushing hard for the bill in recent days, and McCain's best friend in
the Senate, Graham, was an author. Trump declared during the
presidential campaign that he would quickly demolish Obamacare and "it
will be easy."
Democrats
are unanimously opposed. GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has announced
his opposition and GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said Friday she, too,
was leaning against supporting the bill.
Along
with McCain, that would leave Republicans with 49 votes, at most, for
the bill. They would need 50, plus Vice President Mike Pence to break a
tie, in order to prevail in the 100-member Senate.
GOP
leaders had hoped to bring the legislation to the floor next week. They
face a Sept. 30 deadline, at which point special rules that prevent a
Democratic filibuster will expire.
Democrats hailed McCain's announcement and pledged to commit to the bipartisan process he sought.
"John
McCain shows the same courage in Congress that he showed when he was a
naval aviator," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "I
have assured Sen. McCain that as soon as repeal is off the table, we
Democrats are intent on resuming the bipartisan process."
The
Graham-Cassidy bill would repeal major pillars of former President
Barack Obama's law, replacing them with block grants to states to design
their own programs. Major medical groups are opposed, saying millions
would lose insurance coverage and protections, and a bipartisan group of
governors also has announced opposition.
Yet
Republican congressional leaders, goaded by GOP voters and the
president himself, were determined to give it one last try. Trump spent
much of August needling McConnell for his failure to pass a repeal bill,
and Republican lawmakers back home during Congress' summer recess heard
repeatedly from voters angered that after seven years of promises to
get rid of "Obamacare," the party had not delivered.
The
House passed its own repeal bill back in May, prompting Trump to
convene a Rose Garden celebration which soon began to look premature.
After
the Senate failed in several attempts in July, the legislation looked
dead. But Cassidy kept at it with his state-focused approach, and the
effort caught new life in recent weeks as the deadline neared, with
Trump, hungry for a win and with evidence mounting that the GOP could
face severe political repercussions for failing to deliver on promises
that had helped the party win control of the House, Senate and White
House.
There
was fresh negative attention, too. Late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel,
whose son was born with medical problems, criticized the new repeal
effort at length on his show and said the Republicans were lying about
what their new program would cover. In a tweet Friday, he thanked McCain
"for being a hero again and again and now AGAIN."
This
past week McConnell fully embraced the Graham-Cassidy bill for the
first time and his office declared his intention to bring it to a vote
next week.
Trump
tweeted Friday morning that "Rand Paul, or whoever votes against Hcare
Bill, will forever (future political campaigns) be known as 'the
Republican who saved ObamaCare.'"
The
bill would get rid of unpopular mandates for people to carry insurance
or face penalties. It would repeal the financing for Obama's health
insurance expansion and create a big pot of money states could tap to
set up their own programs, with less federal oversight. It would also
limit spending for Medicaid, the federal-state program that now covers
more than 70 million low income people. Insurance rules that protect
people with pre-existing conditions could be loosened through state
waivers.
Over time, the legislation would significantly reduce federal health care dollars now flowing to the states.
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