Is Graham-Cassidy Bill already dead ?

[Johan]

John McCain just dealt the GOP's latest healthcare bill a critical blow


Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican who delivered the final blow to the previous attempt to overhaul the US healthcare system, may have done the same when he came out against the GOP's latest healthcare legislation on Friday afternoon

In a statement, McCain said the lack of "regular order" in crafting the legislation was what pushed him away.

"I would consider supporting legislation similar to that offered by my friends Senators Graham and Cassidy were it the product of extensive hearings, debate, and amendment," McCain said. "But that has not been the case. Instead, the specter of September 30 budget reconciliation deadline has hung over this entire process.

"We should not be content to pass health care legislation on a party-line basis, as Democrats did when they rammed Obamacare through Congress in 2009," McCain added. "If we do so, our success could be as short-lived as theirs when the political winds shift, as they regularly do. The issue is too important, and too many lives are at risk, for us to leave the American people guessing from one election to the next whether and how they will acquire health insurance. A bill of this impact requires a bipartisan approach."

McCain's opposition puts the bill — known as Graham-Cassidy for two of its authors, Sens. Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham — on the brink of defeat.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a fellow Republican, said on Friday that she was leaning against voting for the bill, and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has also come out strongly against it. Republicans can afford only two defections for the legislation to pass.

McCain also pointed to the lack of clarity surrounding the effects of the bill if it were to become law. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office announced it would not be able to provide a full estimate of the bill's impact by September 30, the deadline for the GOP's ability to bypass the Senate's usual 60-vote threshold and instead pass the bill with a simple majority.

The longtime Arizona lawmaker also said he thought some senators were making a genuine attempt to fix what he believes is a broken healthcare system, but that the process of the Graham-Cassidy bill was not in accordance with how the upper chamber should operate.

"I hope that in the months ahead, we can join with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to arrive at a compromise solution that is acceptable to most of us and serves the interests of Americans as best we can," McCain said.

http://www.businessinsider.fr/us/john-mccain-vote-no-graham-cassidy-health-care-bill-2017-9/

How many times Republicans are gonna try to kill ObamaCare only to fail miserably ?

 

[xfire]

Is Graham-Cassidy Bill already dead?

Hopefully, but don't underestimate those Republican dotards.

 

[Jagger69]

It is in my opinion. Collins and Paul won't vote for it and McCain is already out so the bill won't even make it to a vote is my guess.

Nor should it. This THIRD totally partisan attempt to get rid of Obamacare is an utter sell-out to pressure being applied by wealthy republican donors who want the money saved on health care for the average joe to go toward tax cuts for them. Some great example of American democracy at work, huh? What a disgrace. The rules of regular order need to be re-instituted as McCain has argued and the ACA should be fixed vis-a-vis the give-and-take of a bipartisan and committee-oriented effort as it should. Shame on Mitch McConnell and his minions for this...I hope they pay for it at the ballot box in 2018.

 

[darkwarrior3007]

It is in my opinion. Collins and Paul won't vote for it and McCain is already out so the bill won't even make it to a vote is my guess.

Nor should it. This THIRD totally partisan attempt to get rid of Obamacare is an utter sell-out to pressure being applied by wealthy republican donors who want the money saved on health care for the average joe to go toward tax cuts for them. Some great example of American democracy at work, huh? What a disgrace. The rules of regular order need to be re-instituted as McCain has argued and the ACA should be fixed vis-a-vis the give-and-take of a bipartisan and committee-oriented effort as it should. Shame on Mitch McConnell and his minions for this...I hope they pay for it at the ballot box in 2018.

Exactly! The logical thing to do is to fix what doesn't work and keep what does. No, this is about 2 things. 1. Rich donors who want Obamacare killed and 2. Obama gave people healthcare, something they haven't been able to do or unwilling to do since forever. Yeah, there are problems with it but that's why you fix it, instead of gutting it and replacing it with something that's going to screw over the average American! These idiots don't give a damn about healthcare, they're bought and paid for.

 

[Mayhem]

It's the rich donors, wondering why controlling all branches of the government and still fucking this all up that makes this whole thing a bubbling cauldron of deliciousness. That sound we will be hearing in the distance for the next few months will be the bitch-slapping of old, white Republicans by their corporate puppet-masters.

Tax reform won't go anywhere. When Dear Leader said "Wall", he meant "Fresh Coat of Paint". Susan Rice is off the hook. Nobody is calling Hilldawg to the stand, let alone hiring a special prosecutor to go after her. Aaand, the more these losers go after Obamacare, the more people wind up liking Obamacare.

And the donors are all wondering why they spent so much money on a billionaire. And a Caucus of Morons who earned the name: Do-Nothing Congress. Only now that they have supreme power....they're doing even less.

 

[Johan]

This THIRD totally partisan attempt to get rid of Obamacare is an utter sell-out to pressure being applied by wealthy republican donors who want the money saved on health care for the average joe to go toward tax cuts for them. Some great example of American democracy at work, huh? What a disgrace. The rules of regular order need to be re-instituted as McCain has argued and the ACA should be fixed vis-a-vis the give-and-take of a bipartisan and committee-oriented effort as it should. Shame on Mitch McConnell and his minions for this...I hope they pay for it at the ballot box in 2018.

Behind New Obamacare Repeal Vote: ‘Furious’ G.O.P. Donors


As more than 40 subdued Republican senators lunched on Chick-fil-A at a closed-door session last week, Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado painted a dire picture for his colleagues. Campaign fund-raising was drying up, he said, because of widespread disappointment among donors over the inability of the Republican Senate to repeal the Affordable Care Act or do much of anything else.

Mr. Gardner is in charge of his party’s midterm re-election push, and he warned that donors of all stripes were refusing to contribute another penny until the struggling majority produced some concrete results.
“Donors are furious,” one person knowledgeable about the private meeting quoted Mr. Gardner as saying. “We haven’t kept our promise.”

The backlash from big donors as well as the grass roots panicked Senate Republicans and was part of the motivation behind the sudden zeal to take one last crack at repealing the health care law before the end of the month. That effort faltered Friday with new opposition from Senator John McCain of Arizona, the perennial maverick who had scuttled the Senate’s first repeal effort. Now Republicans must confront the possibility that they will once again let down their backers with no big win in sight.
The latest unsightly pileup over health care was exactly what some Republicans had wanted to avoid by abandoning the repeal effort and skipping straight to tax cuts after the previous embarrassing health care collapse about eight weeks ago. Instead, Senate Republicans got caught up in a rushed, last-ditch repeal attempt that not only seems unlikely to prevail, but will only serve to remind disillusioned donors about the party’s governing difficulties.

This was not what Republicans had envisioned. Preparing for the 2018 midterm elections, they had thought they were in a strong position to maintain or expand their majority. Democrats must defend 25 seats — including 10 in states won last year by President Trump — while just eight Republican-held seats will be on the ballot. But their governing struggles — and attacks on congressional leaders by Mr. Trump — have soured their base, leaving the Senate majority feeling desperate.
Addressing his anxious colleagues at their weekly meeting on Sept. 12, Mr. Gardner had a simple message: If we don’t have something to run on, we are going to squander this opportunity.

Republican senators strive to keep discussions at their weekly luncheons secret to allow for candid discussions. This meeting was held off the Capitol grounds, at the headquarters of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to enable a broad discussion of politics. Neither lawmakers nor staff would go on the record to discuss it, but the session was described by multiple people knowledgeable about what occurred.
They said Mr. Gardner did not specifically urge approval of the so-called Graham-Cassidy health proposal that Republicans were considering bringing to the Senate floor next week. He was seen as speaking more generally and mainly looking forward to the coming debate over tax cuts.
But the fund-raising drought has become a growing worry and lawmakers have not been reticent about noting that their political fate could be tied to the outcome on health care and how Senate Republicans handle other issues ahead.

Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, who has been deeply involved in health policy for years, told reporters back home that he could count 10 reasons the new health proposal should not reach the floor, but that Republicans needed to press ahead regardless in order to fulfill their longstanding promise to replace and repeal President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
“Republicans campaigned on this so often that we have a responsibility to carry out what you said in the campaign,” Grassley said in a conference call with Iowa reporters. “That’s pretty much as much of a reason as the substance of the bill.”
Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, was even more blunt in a conversation with Vox. “If we do nothing, it has a tremendous impact on the 2018 elections, and whether or not Republicans still maintain control and we have the gavel,” he said.

Republicans say the fund-raising drop-off has been steep and across the board, from big donations to the small ones the party solicits online from the grass roots. They say the hostile views of both large and small donors are in unusual alignment and that the negative sentiment is crystallized in the fund-raising decline.
One party official noted that Senate Republicans had a lucrative March, raising $7 million — an off-year record for the organization. But in the aftermath of the failed health repeal effort before the August recess and other setbacks, the take dropped to $2 million in July and August — a poor showing for a majority party with a decided advantage on the midterm map.
The totals have left Republicans increasingly worried about having the funds they need next year. Mr. Gardner told his colleagues that a major Colorado contributor who played a role in his own campaign says party donors are reluctant to give any more money until congressional Republicans demonstrate results.

Party operatives say it is hard to assess the full impact of Mr. Trump’s summer attacks on Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, as well as the president’s frustration at the inability of the Republican-led Congress to repeal the health care law. But they assume his criticism has been a factor in driving down support.

Senate Republicans are entering a pivotal week. They have been scrambling to find the votes for the contentious new repeal effort before the Sept. 30 expiration of special budget authority, which would allow the bill to pass with a simple majority and not 60 votes. But Mr. McCain’s decision to join at least two other Republicans — Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky — in finding fault with the measure put its fate in real peril.
If the bill is short of votes, Mr. McConnell could choose not to bring it to the floor at all to prevent a second embarrassing defeat on health care and spare Republicans a difficult vote.

Mr. McConnell faces other immediate challenges as well. A primary on Tuesday in Alabama pits his candidate, Senator Luther Strange, against Roy Moore, a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court challenging him as an outsider. The defeat of Mr. Strange would further rattle his colleagues and be seen as a major rebuke to Mr. McConnell and the Republican establishment in Washington for their failure to deliver on health care repeal and other issues.

Republicans are also set to roll out their income tax overhaul plan next week in an effort to build support for it and find something the party can deliver to the president’s desk. They see the tax plan as their best opportunity to win back the allegiance of donors.

With health care repeal teetering yet again, the one thing they know for sure is that they need to show some accomplishments, and they need to do so fast.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/us/politics/republican-donors-obamacare-repeal.html

 

[Mayhem]

Cruz opposes latest Obamacare repeal attempt


http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/24/cruz-opposes-latest-obamacare-repeal-243067

Sen. Ted Cruz on Sunday said he doesn’t support the latest Obamacare repeal plan, dealing a fresh blow to Republicans’ last-ditch effort to kill Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

After seven years of promises to repeal Obamacare, Republicans have six days to pass legislation with a party-line vote. But with Cruz’s opposition, at least five Republicans in the 52-member caucus have signaled that they either won’t vote for or are leaning against supporting the Graham-Cassidy bill.


The legislation, authored by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, would block-grant federal health care funding to the states.

Graham expressed optimism Sunday that Republicans will pass the bill this week, even after Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona have said they will vote “no.”

The bill, however, faces two obstacles aside from Paul and McCain: time and math. Saturday is the last day Senate Republicans can use the reconciliation budget tactic to pass repeal legislation with a simple majority, rather than the usual 60 votes, and they don’t appear to have the votes.

“Right now, they don’t have my vote,” Cruz said during a panel discussion at the Texas Tribune festival in Austin that also included Sen. John Cornyn. “And I don’t think they have Mike Lee’s vote, either.”

Cruz said he and Lee offered amendments to the Graham-Cassidy proposal last week that would go further in bringing down Obamacare premiums. But the changes, he said, weren’t included in the latest draft of the bill.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine signaled earlier Sunday that she’s unlikely to support the plan. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has also withheld support so far.

Cruz and Cornyn said they back the way the bill would convert Obamacare funding into a system of block grants to states. But while Cornyn said he would vote for the bill as it stands, Cruz said he wants to see more changes, though he didn’t elaborate.

Texas and other states that didn’t expand coverage under Obamacare would fare well under the Graham-Cassidy plan, according to independent analyses of the bill. One by Avalere Health projected the state would gain $35 billion between 2020 and 2026.

While the House narrowly passed Obamacare legislation in May, Republicans in the Senate have failed on three occasions to follow suit. The inability of Republicans, who have for years campaigned on the pledge to undo Obamacare and now control the House, Senate and White House, has reportedly upset donors, who are withholding their financial contributions.

President Donald Trump has tried to sway votes, using his massive Twitter platform to warn that Republicans who don’t support Graham-Cassidy “will forever … be known as ‘the Republican who saved ObamaCare.’” But so far, his efforts haven’t proven successful.

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the University of Texas auditorium where the Cruz panel was being held to protest the repeal efforts.

Cruz said repealing Obamacare remains his top priority and suggested that Republicans could find a way to resurrect a repeal measure after the Sept. 30 deadline for passing a bill through the reconciliation process.

“September 30 is a bogus deadline,” Cruz said. “We can do budget reconciliation or resolution at any point.”

:thefinger:

 

[Straight Shooter]

It's the rich donors, wondering why controlling all branches of the government and still fucking this all up that makes this whole thing a bubbling cauldron of deliciousness. That sound we will be hearing in the distance for the next few months will be the bitch-slapping of old, white Republicans by their corporate puppet-masters.

Tax reform won't go anywhere. When Dear Leader said "Wall", he meant "Fresh Coat of Paint". Susan Rice is off the hook. Nobody is calling Hilldawg to the stand, let alone hiring a special prosecutor to go after her. Aaand, the more these losers go after Obamacare, the more people wind up liking Obamacare.

And the donors are all wondering why they spent so much money on a billionaire. And a Caucus of Morons who earned the name: Do-Nothing Congress. Only now that they have supreme power....they're doing even less.

$5,000

You pick the attorney

 

[Mayhem]

I live in Vegas. If I had $5,000 to blow on anything, do you think I'd be here with you idiots?

 

[Johan]

Graham-Cassidy: Senate will not vote on Obamacare repeal bill in latest humiliation for Republicans


Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said there will be no vote on a bill to repeal Obamacare this week – meaning Republicans have again failed to follow through on one of President Donald Trump's major campaign promises.

Emerging from a closed-door meeting, senators were quick to confirm that no vote would take place on the Graham-Cassidy bill. Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona shook his head and said "no" when asked about plans for a vote.
The announcement marks the end of the latest drive to overhaul the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare, which Republicans have been promising to repeal since former President Barack Obama signed it into law in 2010.
The party had already suffered a devastating defeat on healthcare reform this year when another Obamacare repeal bill failed on the Senate floor in July.

On Monday, Senator Susan Collins joined her Republican colleagues Rand Paul and John McCain in their opposition to Graham-Cassidy, all but ensuring the measure would not pass. Mr McConnell could only afford to lose two votes from his party, which holds a 52-seat majority in the 100-member Senate. No Democrats were expected to vote for the legislation.
From the White House, Mr Trump said he was "disappointed in certain so-called Republicans" who opposed the measure, adding, "We don't know why they did it."

Mr McCain said he disagreed with the partisan process being used to push the bill through Congress; Ms Collins had deep concerns about the legislation's cuts to Medicaid – a healthcare programme for the poor – and other effects on healthcare; and Mr Paul said Graham-Cassidy did not do enough to undo the ACA.
Mr Trump said that "at some point" there will be a repeal and replace of Obamacare.

The latest iteration of Obamacare repeal legislation, drafted by Senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham, was designed to give states funding to run their own healthcare programmes. Despite last minute changes to the legislation, 34 states and Washington, DC were expected to lose money under Graham-Cassidy, according to an analysis from consulting firm Avalere Health.

Speaking at a news conference on Capitol Hill, Republicans downplayed the defeat by saying they were postponing the vote and would return to healthcare after focusing on tax reform.
"There are 50 votes for the substance," Mr Graham said, referring to his healthcare bill. "There are not 50 votes for the process."
Mr McConnell said that Republicans have not given up trying to change America's healthcare system.
"We are not going to be able to do that this week, but it still lies ahead of us, and we haven’t given up on that," Mr McConnell said.

After this week, procedural rules in the Senate will make it much more difficult for Mr McConnell to pass any type of healthcare reform this year without at least some Democratic support.

Republicans assert that Obamacare has destabilised individual markets for health insurance and has forced consumers to buy insurance they do not want or cannot afford.

In a separate news conference, Democrats responded to the defeat of Graham-Cassidy by calling for Republicans to resume bipartisan negotiations to stabilise the health insurance markets. Those bipartisan talks came to a standstill earlier this month after the latest Obamacare repeal plain gained momentum.
"We hope we can move forward and improve health care, not engage in another battle to take it away from people, because they will fail once again if they try," said Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader of the Senate.

 

[cronus100]

Healthcare is proving to be an extremely deadly mine to deal with.

We have to look into the minds of politicans on both sides of Congress to see two groups of demonstrators outside with banners
To the politican who seeks repeal of Obamacare , banners saying "Repeal Replace Obamacare it is costing me thousands" seem to support the proposed Act from people who are paying thousands and saw their costs skyrocket.

But then there is another politican looking out of their window and they are seeing banners saying "Why are you trying to take away my healthcare from me"
from people who see Obamacare as their only chance in years to have access to a doctor to medicines. Yes it might be expensive but it is all they have to what they had before.

The Senate could vote to change the voting rules again try and get the new healthcare act through, repeal Obamacare that way.
Then another group of words form in the politcians minds "Congressional Midterms"
Fantastic if Obamacare is repealed and the new Healthcare act succedes , everything rosey, Seats in Congress secure.
But what happens if stories start filtering out patients can not have vital operations because a clause in the new Act says they are not covered .
Okay if it is one maybe two . What happens if it is thousands who say the same thing
And they are voters in key election battlegrounds.
Suddenly the seats are looking less secure.

Those political minds will have to do a lot more thinking

 

[pornobh]

The bill would have to be alive before it dies