Conservatives near revolt on Senate health care negotiations
Source: Politico
Conservative senators and allied outside groups are on the verge of rebellion against the Senates Obamacare repeal effort, potentially derailing delicate negotiations to overhaul the nations health care system.
As Obamacare repeal talks enter crunch time with a vote as soon as this month, the Senate bill continues to tilt toward more moderate members of the GOP on keeping some of Obamacares regulatory structure and providing a more generous wind-down of the laws Medicaid expansion. The movement has made Republicans increasingly pessimistic that two critical conservative senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, will be able to vote for the GOPs ultimate agreement on health care, according to senators and aides.
I think Lee is a no. And Rand will be a no," said a Republican senator granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal conference matters.
Losing those two senators would be a major blow that would allow Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell no further defections in his 52-senator majority and make Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the key swing votes, further imperiling conservatives negotiating position in a Senate in which McConnell needs 50 votes at a minimum.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/09/health-care-bill-conservative-senators-revolt-239364
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Skittles
(153,193 posts)OnDoutside
(19,972 posts)People should be very worried. They seem intent on a scorched earth policy as regards anything associated with Obama, just so they can say We Repealed Obamacare. Knowing the ignorance of their voters, they might well calculate that they could cut off their healthcare and those idiots would still vote for them.
B Stieg
(2,410 posts)Just lost my job and great health care and am headed for Obamacare, with three pre-conditions, here in Cali.
OnDoutside
(19,972 posts)who will work against anything they try.
I hope you get work soon. Best of luck.
B Stieg
(2,410 posts)But, yeah. They are trying to pass single payer here.
BumRushDaShow
(129,491 posts)do you even think the 30-some member teabaggers ("Freedom Caucus" in the House will go along with that new, less draconian result? The Senate took the House bill (that lost most if not all the House moderates - which have less members than the teabaggers and their co-chair eventually resigned as a chair due to the push-back to his "compromise" , declared it DOA, and reworked it.
You do know that whatever the Senate "passes" has to go back to the House, right?
Am not saying that this is impossible but right now, it is difficult because they are so hyper-partisan within their own ranks.
OnDoutside
(19,972 posts)House Reps did. Which one of us seriously thought they would vote through what they did ? If they can do it there, the Senate Reps can do it too. It's too important to think they wouldn't try, and in fact you can see they clearly are trying.
BumRushDaShow
(129,491 posts)but that doesn't automatically make their different bills "the law'. They have to reconcile them and then go back through the vote process again.... And the timeframe for them to do that has grown short considering how they wanted it all done before their August recess (and they WILL be taking their August recess in order to come back in September with just a few weeks to get the 2018 appropriations taken care of or the government will shut down - let alone deal with the debt ceiling that has "gone missing" out of the media as "an issue", like they made it an issue multiple times under Obama). They will be on "vacation" that July 4th week as it is (which is why Turtle wanted their bill done before then).
There is a significant difference between the House and Senate in terms of numbers of members in each party and how much leeway they have for passing legislation without Democratic party votes. The House could lose no more than 25 House members for their AHCA in order to get to 217 and they were able to whittle it down to 20 to get enough margin to barely pass it. The Senate threshold is much closer and even if their version passes somehow, it would probably be "too liberal" for the teabaggers in the House, and the moderates in the House feeling even MORE pressure through Town Halls, may throw up their hands entirely (especially after what happened with MacArthur and his screw job of the rest of the GOP swing district moderates).
For "P.R." purposes, each chamber could claim to have "passed a repeal/replace bill" and also claim "but the Democrats blocked it", banking on their base not knowing how a bill becomes the law.
OnDoutside
(19,972 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,491 posts)videohead5
(2,181 posts)In the boiling water they are going to take years to wind down Medicaid expansion.it could take 5-7 years.they think this is going work to keep their fannies out of trouble but when millions of people know they are still going to lose their health insurance down the road they will still be in big trouble.the CBO score will tell the tale.
mountain grammy
(26,655 posts)shut up and die.