Trump tweetstorm blasts McCain
Senator opposes latest GOP effort to repeal ‘Obamacare’
President Donald Trump, in a Saturday morning tweetstorm, blasted Arizona Sen. John McCain for opposing the latest GOP attempt to repeal and replace the health care law popularly known as Obamacare.
Trump tweeted that McCain was snookered by Democrats to let down his friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who co-authored the proposed bill with Sen. Bill Cassidy, RLa.
The Graham-Cassidy legislation, which was expected to be voted on this week in the Senate, would get rid of some mandates of the Affordable Care Act, but for the most part would keep its taxes in place and redistribute the money to states in the form of block grants.
The bill would end the Medicaid expansion that 31 states and Washington, D.C., adopted under Obamacare and overhaul the funding for traditional Medicaid.
Trump defended the bill, tweeting: “Large Block Grants to States is a good thing to do. Better control & management. Great for Arizona. McCain let his best friend L.G. down!”
Graham issued a statement Friday saying his friendship with McCain “is not based on how he votes but respect for how he’s lived his life and the person he is.”
The closely divided Senate means that the Republicans, who control 52 of the chamber’s 100 seats, cannot lose more than two GOP senators if they hope to pass the legislation.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has already declared he is a “no” vote, while Republican Susan Collins, of Maine, has said she is “leaning no.” Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted against the GOP’s last repeal-and-replace effort, also is considered a likely vote against Graham-Cassidy.
Trump’s tweets Saturday included three hits on McCain, including one that said the senator “never had any intention of voting for this Bill, which his Governor loves. He campaigned on Repeal & Replace. Let Arizona down!”
He also claimed that Arizona’s Obamacare premiums went up 116 percent last year, and added that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., “sold John McCain a bill of goods. Sad”
At a rally in Alabama on Friday night, the president said he was stunned by the Arizona senator’s vote against the previous repeal bill, saying McCain’s opposition was “totally unexpected” and “terrible.”
Trump appeared to be wooing Paul — the first Republican senator to come out against the bill — to switch: “I know Rand Paul and I think he may find a way to get there for the good of the Party!”
He also issued a tweet about Murkowski, appearing to chide her over her vote in July against the earlier attempt to repeal Obamacare: “Alaska had a 200% plus increase in premiums under ObamaCare, worst in the country. Deductibles high, people angry! Lisa M comes through.”
In July, McCain helped kill the last GOP effort to dump Obamacare, flashing a dramatic thumbsdown on the Senate floor in the waning minutes of the vote.
This time McCain issued a statement well in advance of the expected vote.
“I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal. I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried,” McCain said.
To make a Sept. 30 deadline, Republican senators intended to bring the Graham-Cassidy bill to the floor without the usual full analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.