Posted on 09/07/2017 6:36:10 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
With the shot clock about to expire, Republicans on Capitol Hill may have the ball in their hands again for another chance at what was supposed to be an easy lay-up. Yesterday, Sen. John McCain — who stuck a stake through the heart of the previous ObamaCare repeal effort — announced that he would endorse the only vehicle left remaining. McCain even said that he’d put aside his distaste for operating outside regular order to vote for the Lindsey Graham-Bill Cassidy version of repeal-and-replace:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that he supports a newer version of an ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill, throwing some support behind the last-ditch effort.
McCain said he backs a bill from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that would convert ObamaCare spending into block grants for states. …
“If it’s not through regular order then it’s a mistake, but it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t vote for it,” McCain said when asked about his previous statements.
McCain hedged on that point, however, when pressed on it again:
“As I have said all along, any effort to replace Obamacare must be done through the regular order of committee hearings, open debate and amendments from both sides of the aisle,” McCain said in a statement.
Ask and ye shall receive.
AP: Sen. Cassidy (R-LA) and Sen. Graham (R-SC) will introduce Obamacare repeal bill on Monday with "full White House support"
— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) September 7, 2017
Monday is September 11, which gives Republicans 19 days to push it through the Senate. The odds have improved remarkably, thanks to the deals cut by Donald Trump to push off fights over the budget and debt ceiling off to December. Suddenly, Congress has a fairly light legislative calendar this month.
That may be just a wild coincidence, but … don’t bet on it. If Trump can get a win on ObamaCare repeal because of the sudden bandwidth available for it, his base will rightly hail him for it. Additionally, it will look like a stab in the back from Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to progressives, who never wanted to deal with Trump in the first place.
That’s still a mighty big if, however. Just how likely will passage be? Graham-Cassidy doesn’t have any legislative text, so it technically doesn’t qualify for reconciliation — yet. It will have to reduce Medicaid spending in some form to qualify, which may not gain back Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, although excluding a Planned Parenthood defunding clause might just be enough to get them to back it. The larger question will be whether House conservatives will be satisfied with whatever this ends up producing, or whether the need for a win has grown large enough to outweigh the internecine battles of the past six months.
If this does drop on Monday, the next big milestone to watch will be the CBO score. That will tell us whether passage is a possibility at all.
Sounds like Trump’s gambit with Pelosi/Schumer is already starting to pay dividends.
I wonder how the Trump/Ryan dinner at the White House went tonight, that would have been interesting to watch!
Donald Trump Breaks Lindsey Graham Like a Boy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3PQOP6eax8
McCain’s just jealous that Trump is doing an end run to schmooze with his buddies!
From what was posted I don’t know what this is about.
It doesn’t say what this McCain-Grahnesty bill would do.
This may confirm a suspicion I had going all the way back to the spring of this year when President Trump first began to focus on ObamaCare as his top legislative priority.
1. He got a lot of criticism from conservative pundits who thought he should have tackled tax reform first because it was less contentious.
2. Some of us pointed out here on FR that ObamaCare had to be done first, because Congress needed a favorable CBO estimate with lots of health care spending reductions before they could do a "revenue-neutral" tax reform plan.
3. Yesterday's government spending and debt limit deal bought everyone three months to get both of these done before the end of the 2017 tax year.
It almost doesn’t matter what it would do. The single most important thing for the ObamaCare reform bill is that it must show a lot of reductions in Federal health care outlays over the next ten years. That’s what they need before they can do any tax reform.
rom what was posted I don’t know what this is about.
It doesn’t say what this McCain-Grahnesty bill would do.
And lets hope the voters in your state remember your shenanigans and vote your arse out.
Maybe Trump’s little stunt yesterday showed some of these Republicans that they’re not as important in a House or Senate vote as they think they are.
Starship Troopers
Yes.
The measure, introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., would give states block grants to decide their own health insurance systems.
That’s not repeal. Its spending the same amount of money we still can’t afford.
“McCain, you screwed us over bad. Go away. Just go away.”
I think Juan might be getting a little scared. This week there was talk of a much more in-depth investigation regarding the origins of the fake “golden showers” dossier to set up Trump. We know McCain was involved to some extent. I’m betting he was the instigator.
That would not surprise me at all in fact it makes sense.
McCain is a dirty rotten scoundrel. Actually most of “them” are.
Occums Razor.
That is not much better
Lets hope so.
I have very little respect for the guy. Scary that he might have been our president.
He thought that he’d jab at Trump by voting against the repeal bill only he ended up hurting average folks like me.
No, the bill was not perfect but it was a start. He is responsible for its demise and now he wants to make amends. Too late, Juan. Too late for you bub.
I wonder how many of his constituents feel the same way? I hope, a lot.
That sounds much better bill than I remember thinking this was when it first came out.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/13/politics/lindsey-graham-bill-cassidy-health-care-plan/index.html
Enter Rand Paul. There will always be a Republican who whines about not getting what they want and with The women in the party always finding a reason (why is that Lisa girl even in the party at all?)any other voice of opposition means Obamacare lives.
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