Facing GOP opposition, Senate leaders postpone vote to overhaul Obamacare

Facing GOP opposition, Senate leaders postpone vote to overhaul Obamacare
Looks like McConnell's play to reveal the bill and get a vote on it super quick before the public had time to digest it didn't turn out well, so the vote is being postponed until after the July recess. Apparently the Senators in Congress have a bit more common sense than the Congressmen in the House who acquiesced to the GOP leadership pushing this toxic bill onto the public.

Facing a rebellion within their own ranks, Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday postponed a vote to overhaul the 2010 Affordable Care Act until after the July 4th recess.

The current proposal by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would cause an estimated 22 million more Americans to be uninsured by the end of the coming decade while reducing federal spending by $321 billion during that time, the Congressional Budget Office concluded Monday.

The forecast by Congress’s nonpartisan budget scorekeepers appeared to rapidly erode Republicans’ confidence in the bill, with at least five GOP lawmakers saying that they would vote against even a procedural motion to start debate.

In a sign of the challenge Senate Republicans face in mustering enough votes, Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said the procedural vote is likely to be scheduled for Wednesday rather than Tuesday.

Congress, D or R, don't want anything better than Obamacare because then that is a whole platform they cannot gather more votes with.

It's all a game to them.

Do Congressmen use Obamacare by the way, or is their Healthcare covered by the Taxpayer?

a reply to: Hazardous1408

Congressmen have their own healthcare, which isn't in any jeopardy whatsoever from these bills. The House actually exempted themselves from the changes in their bill.

a reply to: Hazardous1408

Do Congressmen use Obamacare by the way, or is their Healthcare covered by the Taxpayer?

Great question!

The GOP have to make good on promises to lobbyists and others, which is why they can't get their crappy bill to pass, and also why they don't seem to have any balls to start with a bill to just repeal even parts of Obamacare. It's not looking good for them right now...

a reply to: Krazysh0t

The House actually exempted themselves from the changes in their bill.

Reminds me of when Parliament in the UK voted against higher wages for nurses and fire fighters but voted for their own pay increase.


Could you imagine, voting on whether you get a pay rise?
Like anyone is gonna vote no?


Imagine we all had that good fortune to vote our own wage increases/healthcare benefits?

What a sham the whole thing is.

This whole Medicare thing has been a disaster so far. Does anyone in the White House or government know what the hell they're doing at this point?

We need to threaten them with voting them out in 2018 if they do not deliver.

Start a massive campaign. Social Media, Calling EMailing, etc..

Soros's goons will cause lots of fireworks at the Town Hall meetings over the July 4th recess. Republicans will return 20 years older and totally wimped-out.

Trump/Price should just open up Medicare to anyone who wants or needs it. Everyone else can go to Blue Cross, Aetna, etc.. and get a free-market policy.

originally posted by: Hazardous1408
a reply to: Krazysh0t
Could you imagine, voting on whether you get a pay rise?
Like anyone is gonna vote no?

No surprise here, but our Congress already attempted these shenanigans. It's why the 26th Amendment exists. It's probably ALSO why it took 203 years to ratify the damn thing (1789 - 1992)

Under Obamacare a 64 year old guy making 26,000 a year pays 1700 a year

Under this bill in 2026 hell pay 6500


That's why this bill sucks.

Plus 22 million will be kicked off.

a reply to: Krazysh0t
Good.
A whole lot of thought and debate needs to be undertaken before they move on this.

It is not a simple problem, so there won't be a simple answer.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I was putting together a thread on this of my own so I'll just share my thoughts here:

Turns out that healthcare reform is hard. Despite repeal/repeal & replace being a central part of the Republican platform and a mainstay of its politicians' rhetoric for the better part of a decade, the Republicans only ever had opposition and never bothered with such trivial matters as coming up with a plan of their own.

And as unfavorable as certain provisions like the mandate are, there are many aspects like proctection for those with pre-exisiting conditions, that people don't want to see rolled back.

Now with a majority in both houses of Congress and a Republican (sort of) in the White House, their lack of preparation beyond opposition to Obamacare to win elections has left the GOP looking like the proverbial dog who finally caught the car.

In an effort to save face and give the appearance of making good on years of campaign promises, Mitch McConnell and cohorts convened a group behind closed doors to draft legislation, believing that even without any real effort at consensus building — even among Republians — they could ram that legislation through the Senate on sheer partisan allegiance and threats against dissenters.

In essence, hypocrite that he is, McConnell tried to pull exactly what he accused Democrats of and vociferously denounced them for doing. That didn't sit well with a lot of even Republicans. Now he's getting blowback from the "Freedom Caucus" because they just want Obamacare repealed (a return to the failing former status quo) and centrists who are putting their constituents ahead of the ill-conceived political gamesmanship of McConnell.

The media has been talking about 4-5 Republican senators who were likely no votes but I would imagine there's another 10-15 who were willing to tow the line but not entirely comfortable doing so.

The bill is utter s# which is what should be expected giving its origins. There was no legitimate reason for McConnell trying to rush the process. He was looking for a symbolic political win and now he can eat crow.

Hopefully the next move will be to slow their roll and bring more folks into the discussion but I suspect they'll try to work out enough tweaks to pick up the votes after the recess instead.

Anxiously awaiting the twitter in Chief's reaction to this GOP cluster *+*+.

a reply to: Willtell

Actually, not all those 22 million will be kicked off, it will be their choice to get it or not. Now at least they will not be unconstitutionally, fined on their taxes now. If they decide to opt out of getting insurance at all.

Since Republicans and Democrats are unwilling to reform America's medical system, the only option left is to FIX ObamaCare. Start by throwing an additional $1 Trillion a year at it....seriously! That would prevent thousands of people from dying next year, needlessly. A terrorist attack is the least of our worries if ObamaCare finishes it's crash and burn this year.

originally posted by: Skorpy
a reply to: Willtell

Actually, not all those 22 million will be kicked off, it will be their choice to get it or not. Now at least they will not be unconstitutionally, fined on their taxes now. If they decide to opt out of getting insurance at all.

Sure they can get it but then they'll starve to death!

a reply to: theantediluvian

Yeah. McConnell is the biggest slime ball hypocrite in all of Congress. The man has no shame when it comes to flip-flopping his ethics for party gain. It surprised me how quickly the CBO was able to get their estimate out considering it took them much longer for the House bill, but it is likely that they anticipated these shenanigans after struggling to keep up with the House. So they were ready to grade it as soon as they could. They probably were also privy to some leaked copies that gave them a head start over when the public officially knew about it.

a reply to: butcherguy

I think most people understand that Obamacare has serious problems and want to see it fixed or replaced by something better. I also believe that the majority of people don't particularly care who does it as long as it's done and done right.

What McConnell just tried to pull doesn't make much sense in this light. Everyone would be better off if they focused on fixing the fundamental shortcomings and delivering something that is marked improvement instead of trying to jam something through by an arbitrary date.

On this I think we agree 100%, this is too complex and too important to be subject to arbitrary political timelines.

a reply to: Willtell

I'm thinking about opting out. The only reason I got it last time was because Obama forced me to get it. It was cheaper for me to have insurance than take the fine on my taxes. Now since there will be NO fine then all is good on that part of this bill.
However, it needs lower premiums and deductibles. More importantly, solving the preexisting conditions is the most important thing to me.

originally posted by: Skorpy
a reply to: Willtell

Actually, not all those 22 million will be kicked off, it will be their choice to get it or not. Now at least they will not be unconstitutionally, fined on their taxes now. If they decide to opt out of getting insurance at all.

No they will be kicked off. It'll happen over time and not at once, but the projections are very clear on this. In addition to those 22 million people who will now find themselves without coverage there is an additional thing that gives you a monetary penalty for having a lapse in coverage that is being used to encourage the remainders not to drop their coverage. Which is what you are probable referring to.