Bamcare lives & Don rips McCain
THE REPUBLICANS’ latest effort to tear down Obamacare died a noisy death Monday amid protests and a fourth GOP senator declining to support it, prompting President Trump to lash out at one of the defectors.
Trump took to Twitter to blast the Arizona Sen. John McCain, even though it was Maine Sen. Susan Collins who put the final nail in the coffin Monday by joining the small but determined group of GOP senators who refuse to back the bill.
Trump posted a six-minute montage of clips of McCain over the years promising to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
“A few of the many clips of John McCain talking about Repealing & Replacing O’Care. My oh my has he changed-complete turn from years of talk!” Trump fumed.
Earlier Monday, police had to arrest 181 protesters, some of whom had forced their way into the Senate Finance Committee to briefly delay the chamber’s first and only hearing on the bill.
Police lugged some demonstrators out of the hearing room and trundled out others in wheelchairs as scores chanted, “No cuts to Medicaid, save our liberty.”
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said “millions” of Americans would lose coverage under the GrahamCassidy bill and projected it would impose $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts through 2026. Not long after the agency released its analysis, Collins (photo) announced her opposition.
“Part of the problem that we have had has been the lack of hearings, debates and careful consideration and vetting of the health care replacement bills,” Collins said.
She renewed calls for Republicans and Democrats to collaborate to stabilize health insurance markets and protect consumers from rising costs.
With only 52 Republicans in the Senate and Democrats united in opposition, GOP leaders could afford to lose only two votes. Along with Collins and McCain, GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas withdrew their support.
Republicans had pinned their last hopes on a measure by GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. It would end Obama’s Medicaid expansion and subsidies for consumers and ship the money — $1.2 trillion through 2026 — to states to use on health services with few constraints.
But the CBO analysis said “the number of people with comprehensive health insurance that covers high-cost medical events would be reduced by millions.”
Graham defended his bill, and also McCain, during a televised CNN debate Monday night on health care. The debate pitted Graham and Cassidy against Sens. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, and Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat.
Asked about Trump’s tweet about his friend, Graham brought up McCain’s service as a Navy pilot who spent more than five years as a POW in Vietnam. McCain “was willing to die for his country” and therefore can vote any way he wants, Graham said.