“Good idea. We need someone to take out Murkowski”
Agree. But, doubt that it will happen. A not much mentioned fact is that there are now 35% of Alaskans on Medicaid. So, in reality Alaskans are not upset with Obama Care. The lower 48 perception of Alaskans being self sustaining individualistic frontiersmen is a urban myth. They seem to have become hooked on government free stuff....
The Medicaid issue should have been removed from the bill and dealt with separately if that was the hang up. The Medicaid expansion is creating a fiscal crisis and must be dealt with, but if we could have gotten rid of all of the other crises Obamacare has caused without touching that for now, it would have been worth it.
Both Alaska and Maine (Murkowski and Collins) have a LOT of folks, big percentages in low populiiton states, who are are very heavily dependent on entitlements.