NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd is reporting that a reliable source tells him that three Republican Senators are ready to publicly oppose Trumpcare today. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can only afford to lose two Senators, so Senate Trumpcare is already on life support.
Todd tweeted:
Per solid source: at least 3 GOP sens (perhaps more) plan to announce public opposition to McConnell health bill later today. Developing
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) June 22, 2017
Chuck Todd’s source could be wrong, but of the seven Senators who were thought to be no votes, Sens. Murkowski (AK) and Collins (ME) said that they would study the bill over the weekend and have a decision by early next week. One of the no votes was Sen. Rand Paul (KY) who is already complaining that there is too much of Obamacare left in the Senate bill, so an uneducated guess would be that the opposition that is most likely to publicly announce today would come from the group of Republicans who don’t think the bill goes far enough (Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee).
The dilemma for Mitch McConnell and the Senate GOP leadership is that if they appease the far right, they may end up losing Murkowski, Collins, and Capito of West Virginia. Two other wildcard Republican votes come from Senators whose Republican governors have already said that they don’t want to see Medicaid cut (Sens. Portman of Ohio and Heller of Nevada).
If three Republican Senators oppose this bill today, it will be one of the fastest crash and burns in legislative history. It is not a given that Mitch McConnell is going to be able to thread the needle and get this bill through the Senate, but if he sticks to his guns and holds a vote before Senators leave for the Fourth of July recess, Trumpcare may be dead before it ever really got off the ground.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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