Cruz chafes at not repealing ACA; Cornyn says GOP will do ‘the very best we can’
WASHINGTON — Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a longtime critic of Obamacare, said Thursday that he and a group of other key senators are prepared to vote against the new Senate GOP replacement bill, clouding its prospects hours after it was rolled out by Senate leaders.
In a statement issued with Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky, Cruz said the bill does not go far enough to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and that further changes will be needed to get it through the Senate.
“For a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information,” the group said in a joint statement that
could hamstring the Trump administration’s hopes of passing a health-care bill.
The loss of four GOP senators could be fatal for the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, which Republican leaders rolled out earlier in the day. With a 52-48 majority in the Senate, Republicans can afford to lose only two GOP votes, assuming Vice President Mike Pence would provide the tie-breaker in a 50-50 split. Democrats are uniformly opposed to the health-care rewrite.
The dissenters’ statement laid down a conservative marker: “There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current health-care system but it does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their health-care costs.”
As Senate Republicans unveiled their closely guarded health-care bill, Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, acknowledged that the plan falls short of the longterm GOP goal of repealing Obamacare root and branch.
“We are constrained by budget rules, and we’ll do the very best we can under the circumstances,” he told Texas reporters on the eve of the plan’s rollout.
Republican leaders argue that Senate rules for passing a bill with a simple majority preclude them from immediately enacting more sweeping changes, which would require 60 votes to overcome an expected Democratic filibuster.
Republicans have goals
Cornyn laid out four goals for the new Senate plan:
• First, stabilize the insurance market, “to make it possible for people to have real choices when it comes to buying their health care.”
• Second, bring down premiums, which have continued to rise under Obamacare.
• Third, Cornyn said, “We will continue the current law with regard to pre-existing conditions so that no one has to worry about losing their coverage if they move from a job or have an interruption in their coverage.”
• Lastly, he said, the plan should put Medicaid, the health plan for the poor, “on a sustainable path.”
Democrats have accused Republicans of rolling back currently planned spending on Medicaid, though Cornyn said the program will continue to see year-overyear increases in spending.
Democrats also have attacked the secrecy surrounding the Senate bill, which is expected to cut Medicaid and repeal taxes on the wealthy. The plan has been kept under wraps until now.
Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said Thursday that the secrecy surrounding the bill “is now obvious — it’s a disaster for Americans everywhere.”
“If Senate Republicans like Ted Cruz and John Cornyn truly want to improve health care, they should end attempts to repeal Obamacare and work with Democrats to build on the progress that has already been made,” he said in a statement.
Cornyn said there’s been no lack of debate.
“It is unfortunate that it has become such a partisan issue,” he said. Democrats, he said, “are simply unwilling to lift a finger to try and help. So the responsibility falls to us to do our very best to help people who are being hurt by the failures of Obamacare.”
He said Senate leaders expect to get a cost estimate on the bill by Monday, launching formal debate on the bill next week. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the House bill would cause some 23 million people to lose insurance coverage.
“My expectation is we’ll take the bill up next week, and we will vote on it with unlimited amendments,” Cornyn said. “We have something called a ‘vote-a-rama’ on budget reconciliation bills like this.”
“It will be completely transparent,” Cornyn said, “and there will be a fulsome debate and unlimited amendments.”
Cruz adrift from GOP?
The debate could be a defining moment for Cruz, a key figure in a 2013 government shutdown over Obamacare funding. If he sticks with the tea party right that rallied for repealing “every word” of Obamacare, he could find himself newly isolated from his party’s leadership, including President Donald Trump, who has made clear his eagerness to sign a health-care bill.
But even as liberal groups blasted the new GOP bill Thursday, some conservative groups expressed the same skepticism as Cruz. “Unfortunately, the Senate bill is an amendment to Obamacare, not a repeal of it,” said Adam Brandon, president of FreedomWorks, a prominent tea party group.
Until now, Cruz was seen as one of the best hopes for GOP conciliation.
“Four months ago, I joined with a group of five other senators with very different perspectives on health care policy — representative of the full spectrum of the Republican Party — for the sole purpose of working together to fulfill our commitment to voters to reduce premiums and provide better, more affordable healthcare,” Cruz said in a separate statement.
He added: “While I have not yet had the opportunity to fully review the draft legislative text itself, there are components that give me encouragement and there are also components that are a cause for deep concern.”
Some analysts say Cruz’s opposition could be pivotal. “He was on the drafting committee and allegedly headed it, so he knows the ins and outs and specifics probably better than most senators,” said University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias. “All of this means he could be critical because Trump, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the GOP need this after all their promises to the American people.”
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