Senate will not vote on repeal of Obamacare
WASHINGTON — Facing assured defeat, Republican leaders decided Tuesday not to even hold a vote on the GOP’s latest attempt to repeal the Obama health care law, surrendering on their last-gasp effort to deliver on the party’s banner campaign promise.
“The bill is dead as a doornail,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., leaving a luncheon where GOP senators decided against holding a futile roll call.
The decision marked the latest stinging rejection on the issue for President Donald Trump and Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell. In July, the Republican-controlled Senate rejected three similar GOP measures, a failure that infuriated conservatives and prompted Trump to spend much of his summer tweeting insults at McConnell and other Republican senators for falling short.
McConnell, R-Ky., and other Republicans characterized the decision as a short-term setback. They needed to vote on the measure this week because procedural protections against a billkilling Democratic filibuster expire Sunday, though they could revisit the issue in future months.
“We haven’t given up on changing the American health care system,” McConnell told reporters. “We aren’t going to be able to do it this week.”
But he made it clear it was time for Republicans to turn away from trying to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care. They’ve been promising to erase that law since its 2010 enactment but have never rallied behind a plan to replace it.
“Where we go from here is tax reform,” he said, citing the next big GOP goal.
Rejection became all but inevitable Monday after Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins announced she opposed the legislation. She joined Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Texas’ Ted Cruz who already had said they opposed the measure. Cruz aides said he was seeking changes that would let him vote yes.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, did not reveal a definitive position but said that while changes in Obama’s law are needed, “substance matters.” Her state has extremely high health care costs, in part because of its many remote communities.
Because of their narrow majority and unified Democratic opposition, Republicans could lose just two GOP votes and still push the legislation through the Senate.
The retreat left the GOP’s next steps on health care unclear, especially with a president who in recent weeks has reached out to congressional Democratic leaders on high-agenda items such as the budget and immigration.
Trump said in a meeting Tuesday with Republican and Democratic House members he would work with Democrats on health care if the Republicans “didn’t get repeal done,” according to Rep. Richard Neal, R-Mass. Neal quoted Trump as saying, “You get a better deal if it’s bipartisan.”
It was unclear what compromise Trump could strike with Democrats between his stated desire to uproot the health care statute and Democrats defending what was perhaps Obama’s proudest domestic achievement.
Democrats rejoiced over the GOP’s retreat.
“Today, Americans breathe a sigh of relief because the health care of millions has been protected and preserved,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
He and other Democrats called on Republicans to join a bipartisan effort aimed at buttressing Obama’s law and stabilizing individual health care markets.
Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., have been working on a bipartisan bill that would continue federal subsidies to insurers for reducing costs for lower-earning consumers. Trump has threatened to block those payments.
“I will consult with Senator Murray and with other senators, both Republicans and Democrats, to see if senators can find consensus on a limited bipartisan plan that could be enacted into law to help lower premiums and make insurance available to the 18 million Americans in the individual market in 2018 and 2019,” Alexander said.
“I would have voted for the Graham-Cassidy proposal because it meant more money and more state decision-making for Tennessee, and would have helped control the federal debt. But Graham-Cassidy primarily would have affected 2020 and beyond. I’m still concerned about the next two years and Congress has an opportunity to slow down premium increases in 2018, begin to lower them in 2019, and do our best to make sure there are no counties where people have zero options to buy health insurance.”