McCain returning to Senate for health care vote
President puts pressure on would-be defectors; actual bill still a mystery
Washington — The Senate plans to vote today to try to advance a sweeping rewrite of the nation’s healthcare laws with the last-minute arrival of Sen. John McCain — but tough talk from President Donald Trump won no new public support from skeptical GOP senators for the flagging effort that all but collapsed last week.
In a bit of drama, McCain, R-Ariz., who announced last week he was diagnosed with brain cancer, said Monday night that he will return to the Capitol today to vote on whether to start debate on the health-care bill. The senator had been recuperating from surgery in Arizona.
“Senator McCain looks forward to returning to the United States Senate tomorrow to continue working on important legislation, including health care reform, the National Defense Authorization Act, and new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea,” McCain’s office said in a statement.
It is in unclear, however, if McCain’s return will improve Republicans’ prospects of passing a key procedural hurdle to move the healthcare bill forward.
The news that McCain would return to Washington came after a day in which President Trump took to publicly calling out Republicans in Congress for failing to achieve the rollback of the Affordable Care Act — something that both he and the GOP congressional majority have promised to do.
Speaking at a White House event on Monday night, Trump threateningly urged Senate Republicans to vote “yes” on a procedural motion that would allow a proposal regarding the nation’s health-care system to be debated on the Senate floor. However, exactly what legislation lawmakers would be debating remained unclear to many of them late Monday.
In a West Virginia speech before the National Boy Scout Jamboree, Trump sought to pressure Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., by saying, “You better get Senator Capito to vote for it,” referring to his health
“As the Scout law says, a Scout is trustworthy, loyal — we could use some more loyalty, I can tell you that.” PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SPEAKING TO A GATHERING OF BOY SCOUTS, ALLUDING TO TODAY’S HEALTH CARE VOTE
and human services secretary, Tom Price, who was with him. Trump also quipped that he would fire Price if he did not round up enough votes.
“As the Scout law says, a Scout is trustworthy, loyal — we could use some more loyalty, I can tell you that,” Trump said in a day that was filled with thinly veiled barbs at Republicans who have failed to advance the health-care revamp.
McCain’s dramatic return could inject some suspense into a procedural vote to open debate on the health-care legislation, which so far has failed to pick up strength — no matter which version is considered.
Revered on both sides of the aisle, the news that McCain has brain cancer cast a pall over the Capitol last week and his return is sure to provide a morale boost for colleagues in both parties.
But most immediately, McCain may provide a critical vote in support of beginning formal debate on the healthcare bill. Republican leaders openly discussed the possibility of McCain’s return with reporters on Monday during an evening vote.
“I’m pretty confident we’ll get on the bill even without John, “Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the chamber’s lead GOP vote-counter, told reporters.
Sen. Susan Collin, R-Maine, said she spoke with McCain on Saturday and that her frequent collaborator was eager to get back to work.
“It is just extraordinary how upbeat he is and how accepting of his diagnosis — it was truly inspirational to talk with him,” she said. “I have a feeling that if there’s any way he can be back, he will be here — whether his doctors like it. It just reminds me of what an extraordinarily brave person he is.”
Without McCain, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., could only have afforded one GOP defection. Multiple Republican senators have raised objections to each health-care proposal that has been offered, leaving McConnell and Trump in a very difficult spot.
“There is still time to do the right thing,” Trump said at the White House on Monday. He added a word of warning: “Any senator who votes against starting debate is telling Americans that you are fine with the Obamacare nightmare.”
Vice President Pence is also lobbying heavily for wary senators to pass a health-care overhaul and was spotted heading toward McConnell’s Capitol Hill office late Monday afternoon as votes were getting underway.
Some Republican senators expressed confidence in a newly emerging strategy of trying to pass smaller-scale changes to the Affordable Care Act, with an eye on trying to continue negotiations into the fall.
McConnell encouraged senators to vote Tuesday to open what he said would be a period of “robust debate” on health care. “I will vote ‘yes’ on the motion to proceed and I would urge all of our colleagues to do the same,” he said in a speech on the Senate floor.