GOP senator vital to passage of health bill won’t support it

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, perhaps the most vulnerable Republican facing re-election in 2018, said Friday he would not support the Senate health-care overhaul as written, dealing a serious blow to his party’s attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act just days before a showdown vote.

Using remarkably caustic language, Heller, who is seen as a pivotal swing vote, denounced the Senate-drafted health-care bill in terms that Democrats swiftly seized on.

“I cannot support a piece of legislation that takes insurance away from tens of millions of Americans,” he said in Las Vegas, standing next to Nevada’s Republican governor, Brian Sandoval, who accepted federal funding in the health law to expand Medicaid.

After vowing for seven years to tear up “Obamacare,” congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump are under pressure from their conservative base to fulfil their campaign promises. But Republican lawmakers in swing states face an excruciating choice: risk angering their grassroots supporters by walking away from the repeal effort or expose themselves to Democratic attacks by pushing through an unpopular bill.

So far, five Republican senators have said they cannot vote for the Affordable Care Act repeal as written: Heller, whose concerns are with the benefits cuts, and four hard-line conservatives who say the bill is too generous.

Heller did not rule out ultimately voting for a version of the bill, leaving the battle for 50 votes ahead of a Senate showdown as early as next week very much alive.