WASHINGTON (AP) — Where the Senate Republican effort to demolish the Obama health care law ends up is anyone’s guess, but early indications are the GOP will have a hard time replacing that statute with any sweeping changes.
Senators planned to vote Wednesday on a Republican amendment repealing much of President Barack Obama’s law and giving Congress two years to concoct a replacement. A combination of solid Democratic opposition and Republicans unwilling to tear down the law without a replacement in hand were expected to defeat that plan.
Late Tuesday night, the Senate voted 57-43 to block a wide-ranging proposal by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell replacing Obama’s statute with a far more restrictive GOP substitute. Those voting no included nine Republicans, ranging from conservative Mike Lee of Utah to Maine moderate Susan Collins, in a roll call that raised questions about what if any reshaping of Obama’s law splintered Republicans can muster votes to achieve.
The rejected amendment — the first offered to the bill — was centered on language by McConnell, R-Ky., erasing Obama’s tax penalties on people not buying insurance, cutting Medicaid and trimming its subsidies for consumers. It included a provision by Ted Cruz, R-Texas, letting insurers sell cut-rate policies with skimpy coverage plus an additional $100 billion — sought by Midwestern moderates including Rob Portman, R-Ohio — to help states ease out-of-pocket costs for people losing Medicaid.
GOP defectors also included Sens. Dean Heller of Nevada, who faces a tough re-election fight next year, and usually steady McConnell allies Bob Corker of Tennessee, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kansas’ Jerry Moran.
Before that defeat, President Donald Trump and McConnell snatched victory from what seemed a likely defeat and won a 51-50 vote to begin debating the GOP drive against Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which sits atop the party’s legislative priorities.
In a day of thrilling political theater, Vice President Mike Pence broke a tie roll call after Sen. John McCain returned to the Capitol from his struggle against brain cancer to help push the bill over the top. There were defections from just two of the 52 GOP senators — Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkoswki — the precise number McConnell could afford to lose and still carry the day.
All Democrats voted against dismantling the 2010 statute that looms as President Barack Obama’s landmark domestic achievement.