Cruz: GOP health bill is a ‘disaster’

WASHINGTON — Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz doubled down Sunday on his contention that the House GOP health care bill is in trouble in the Senate, countering the more sunny predictions of some Republican leaders.

Appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Cruz argued that the bill devised by House Speaker Paul Ryan and fellow Texan Kevin Brady does not go far enough to repeal the insurance mandates under Obamacare.

Cruz, whose support could be critical to Senate passage, also took a swipe at Ryan’s assurances that the real heavy lifting in the GOP’s Obamacare repeal effort will happen in a future third installment of legislative changes, after passage of the current bill and certain administrative changes in the Department of Health and Human Services.

“I call bucket three the sucker’s bucket,” Cruz said, noting that the changes Ryan contemplates in Phase Three would have to go through the Senate’s regular legislative process, which is subject to Democratic filibuster.

With 52 Republicans in the Senate, Cruz noted that future changes would require the votes of eight Democrats to meet the 60-vote threshold to defeat a filibuster.

Ryan has said the first phase, which could come to a vote in the House this week, must be limited to budgetary items subject to “reconciliation,” a Senate process that requires only a simple majority.

Cruz called that argument “fundamentally false,” noting that the entirety of the Affordable Care Act has budget implications.

Like other Republicans, Cruz has argued that the focus of the replacement legislation should be on lowering premiums, which have gone up under the ACA, albeit more slowly than before the bill was passed in 2009.

A new non-partisan Congressional Budget Office analysis found that the House Republican bill — besides leaving 24 million Americans uninsured — would initially cause higher average premiums.

But even if rates come down later, Cruz suggested, Republicans would be “tarred and feathered” by voters in the early years of the new law, which he called a “substantive and political disaster.”

Cruz also differs from many Republican leaders in his willingness to weaken the ACA’s guarantee of coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions. Instead, he has endorsed an undefined version of “continuous coverage,” a measure that would protect people who keep up on their policies.

But he has not said if he supports the House GOP provision that permits people with gaps in their coverage to get back on the insurance rolls by paying a 30 percent surcharge.

Cruz told “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson on Sunday that he spent Saturday at President Donald Trump’s Florida compound, Mara-Lago, working out hard-right conservatives’ objections to the GOP plan, which could still imperil the legislation in the House.

“He wants to get to yes,” Cruz said of Trump. “I want to get to yes. But we have to solve some problems.”