O’Care facing doom

Mitch, as GOP’s own plan flatlines

With support for the GOP health-care proposal crumbling Monday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell backed away from plans to “repeal and replace” ObamaCare — and instead called for it to be simply repealed while a replacement is figured out.

McConnell — who revealed his new plan of attack just minutes after the number of Republican opponents of the controversial Senate placement bill grew to four — said the Senate will soon vote to end ObamaCare, with a two-year delay.

“Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of ObamaCare will not be successful,” McConnell said in a statement.

“In the coming days, the Senate will vote to take up the House bill, with the first amendment in order being what a majority of the Senate has already supported in 2015 and that was vetoed by then-President Obama: a repeal of ObamaCare with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period.”

Both chambers of Congress passed the repeal bill in 2015 and it was promptly vetoed by Obama.

The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation said in a report that the number of uninsured “would increase by about 19 million in 2016” under the GOP’s 2015 plan.

President Trump, who had campaigned on a promise to repeal ObamaCare on “Day One” of his presidency, appeared to echo McConnell’s sentiments and hoped to get support from across the aisle.

“Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan

that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!” Mr. Trump tweeted shortly before McConnell’s statement.

The tumult began Monday night when Sens. Mike Lee (RUtah) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) released separate statements stating they did not support the current bill.

“We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy,” Moran said. “Furthermore, if we leave the federal government in control of everyday health-care decisions, it is more likely that our health-care system will devolve into a single-payer system, which would require a massive federal spending increase.”

Lee complained that the bill did not repeal all of the ObamaCare taxes or do enough to lower premiums for middle-class families.

“After conferring with trusted experts regarding the latest ver- sion of the Consumer Freedom Amendment, I have decided I cannot support the current version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act,” Lee said.

That move brought the number of GOP opponents in the chamber to four — which leaves it short of the 50 votes needed to pass — again stalling Trump’s mission to dismantle Obama’s signature legislative achievement.

Democrats could barely contain their glee Monday night.

“This second failure of TrumpCare is proof positive that the core of this bill is unworkable,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

“Rather than repeating the same failed, partisan process yet again, Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health-care system.”

Meanwhile, police are investigating a threatening note left over the weekend at the district office of Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), a potential swing vote in the effort to repeal ObamaCare.

Authorities responded on Saturday to a burglary alarm at a building in southwest Las Vegas where Heller’s local office is located.