GOPer: Med bill a ‘kitchen $ink,’ down for count

SENATE Republicans aren’t “getting anywhere” with their pricey plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday.

“I don’t think we’re getting anywhere with the bill we have; we’re at an impasse,” Paul (R-Ky.) said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Every time you add more federal money, more spending for the big-government Republicans, it offends the conservatives. So, right now, this bill, which is not a repeal, has become the kitchen sink.”

Paul (photo), citing insurance bailouts in the bill, said the legislation was “just being lit up like a Christmas tree full of billion-dollar ornaments.”

“We don’t repeal the regulations,” he said. “We don’t repeal the subsidies.”

A more viable option, he argued, would be a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act along with a concurrent bill aimed at replacing it.

“Let’s do clean repeal like we promised, and I think you can get 52 Republicans for clean repeal,” Paul said. “You can have a simultaneous bill or a concurrent bill that they can call replace and that, I think perhaps if it’s big spending, they could probably get Democrats to go along with big spending.”

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) has pushed for a similar idea, telling CNN on Sunday he supports a separate repeal bill “with a delay” on implementation so that people aren’t thrown off insurance rolls.

“If we can do a combined repeal and replace over the next week, that’s great,” Sasse told “State of the Union.” “If we can’t, though, then there’s no reason to walk away.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week delayed the vote until after the July 4 recess due to insufficient support — which, according to its most recent Congressional Budget Office score, would leave 22 million people uninsured in the next decade. House Republicans narrowly passed a repeal-and-replace plan in May. President Trump threw a party after the bill passed and later called the legislation “mean.”

The Senate version would fail if more than two dissenting GOPers in the 52-48 majority vote against it.

Only 17% of Americans approve of the GOP-backed Senate bill, according to a NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist survey from last week.

White House legislative affairs director Marc Short, in his inaugural appearance on the Sunday talkshow circuit, expressed optimism in the current Senate bill — but left the door open to a repeal-only plan.

“If the replacement part is too difficult for Republicans to get together, then let’s go back and take care of the first step of repeal.”