Senate’s health care bill unraveling
Public opposition, GOP defections take toll
President Trump acknowledged that passing an Obamacare replacement will be “very tough” but that Senate Republicans will eventually “get it over the line,” even as a new poll found just 16 percent of Americans support the controversial legislation.
“We’re going to have a big surprise,” a cryptic Trump said at the White House yesterday, declining to elaborate. “We’re going to have a great, great surprise.”
Yet bad news for the Senate health care bill seems to be building by the day. After the Congressional Budget Office found that 22 million more Americans would not have insurance by 2026 compared to Obamacare, several GOPers jumped ship, forcing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to push a vote back until after the Fourth of July recess.
The Republican detractors appeared no closer to embracing the plan yesterday, and a new poll may only give them more second thoughts.
Only 16 percent of Americans approve of the Senate health care bill, while 58 percent disapprove, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday.
And 46 percent said they would be “less likely” to vote to re-elect a senator or congressman who backed the bill.
Senators will begin traveling to their home states tomorrow for Independence Day parades and town halls where they’re likely to get an earful from constituents on both sides — those frustrated that Obamacare has yet to be replaced and others fearful they’ll lose coverage or pay more under the proposed GOP plan.
At least nine Republicans oppose the plan, ranging from conservatives such as Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, who doesn’t believe the bill amounts to a true Obamacare repeal, to moderates, such as Susan Collins of Maine, who dislike proposed cuts to Medicaid.
Then there are Republican governors of states that have already starting expanding Medicaid under Obamacare, such as Ohio’s John Kasich, who’s considered a potential presidential primary challenger to Trump in 2020, and has called the plan “unacceptable.”
With Democrats on the sidelines, largely choosing to attack the bill rather than negotiate with the GOP, the quarreling has put a spotlight once again on the difficulties of uniting fractured Republicans.
“Once in Glacier National Park I saw two porcupines making love,” said U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. “I’m assuming they produced smaller porcupines. They produced something. It has to be done carefully. That’s what we’re doing now.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is hoping to send a revised version of the bill back to the Congressional Budget Office for a new score by tomorrow, according to The Washington Post, setting up a new deadline to vote on the legislation before lawmakers adjourn for their lengthy August recess.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is also preparing to roll out its travel ban, which received a partial green light by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week as it awaits arguments in October.
Senior officials from the Departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security worked to finalize the rules for visitors from the mostly Muslim nations affected by the travel ban.
The Trump administration has given itself a deadline of today to implement the ban.
The high court in its opinion earlier this week exempts applicants if they can prove a “bona fide relationship” with an American or a U.S. entity.
The ban applies to Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen.