Trump: GOP health bill short of votes before deadline

[DonViejo]

By Erica Werner ASSOCIATED PRESS SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Wednesday the Republicans’ last-resort ‘‘Obamacare’’ repeal effort remains two or three votes short, forecasting days of furious lobbying ahead with a crucial deadline looming next week.

The legislation by Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina would repeal major pillars of former president Barack Obama’s health law, replacing them with block grants to states to design their own health care programs. Majority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is trying to round up 50 votes to pass the legislation before Sept. 30, when special rules preventing a Democratic filibuster will expire.

‘‘We think this has a very good chance, Obamacare is only getting worse,’’ Trump told reporters covering the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, as he prepared to meet Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. ‘‘At some point the Senate is going to be forced to make a deal.’’ By his reckoning, ‘‘we’re at 47 or 48 already, senators, and a lot of others are looking at it very positively.’’

Trump’s comments came several hours after McConnell’s office announced that the majority leader’s ‘‘intention’’ is to bring the legislation to the Senate floor next week, a question McConnell was noncommittal on a day earlier. After the embarrassing defeat of an earlier repeal bill in July, some Republicans believe McConnell would bring a bill to the floor only with the votes in hand.

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http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2017/09/20/trump-gop-health-bill-short-votes-before-deadline/ojNHBz3bdo7m5SETk9m1yK/story.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Is this bill truly intended to pass or is it posturing for the Base?

Or it doesn't matter which one?

[Weekend Warrior]

2. Two votes is payoff territory.

Three or more votes is more difficult.

[spanone]

3. K&R...

[bearsfootball516]

4. My guess is right now, they're missing Paul, McCain and Murkowski

[MoonRiver]

5. Also Collins?

Can't believe she would sign on to losing pre-existing conditions protection.

[sweetroxie]

6. I think the Senators can delude themselves

into believing that the right of states to oversee the preexisting conditions means that there is support for preexisting conditions where there is not.

[MoonRiver]

7. I don't think Collins falls into the deluded Senator category.

My guess is that she is a firm NO.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

8. "Obamacare is only getting worse," the Orange One said

Does he even know what the ACA says, or how it works? Does he even care? He's gotten used to parroting it as an applause line at his campaign rallies. The deplorables, drunk with power from the 2016 election, roar their approval without once stopping to think how the GOP "plan" will annihilate their family finances, and possibly even kill those they love.

ACA can and should be improved, not repealed. The Repugs are like someone who gets rid of their new BMW because the ashtray is full.