With two more GOP senators now opposed to the Senate health bill, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump’s effort to repeal and replace Obamacare looks to be dead on arrival.
Monday night, republican senators Jerry Moran and Mike Lee joined Rand Paul and Susan Collins in their opposition to the Better Care Reconciliation Act effectively killing the legislation before it’s had a chance to come to a vote.
After learning of the news, Donald Trump called on the Senate GOP to immediately repeal Obamacare and begin fresh on a new healthcare plan:
Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017
Per Politico:
Trump’s tweet came after two Republican senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas, said they could not support the current bill. They joined Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul in opposition, denying GOP leaders the support to even bring the bill to the floor and upending Republicans’ seven-year goal of repealing Obamacare
This latest setback for the Republican bill comes before the Congressional Budget Office was able to release a score on the latest revision and as senator John McCain was recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot from above his eye. Previously senate majority leader Mitch McConnell delayed the vote until McCain was able to return to cast his ballot.
Now McConnell can go back to the drawing board in a further effort to appeal to both the middle and far right of his party. Or senate republicans can issue a full repeal of Obamacare, something they were able to pass back in 2015 before it was ultimately vetoed by President Obama when it met his desk. Judging by the act now and ask questions later methodology of Donald Trump, it’ll probably go into effect if it was put on his desk. However such a decision could be very costly to republicans come 2018 if it were to backfire.
