Do nothing Congress rejected a key proposal to repealing and replacing Obamacare Tuesday night. Nine GOP Senators voted against the amendment.
As reported earlier, Republican Senators secured the 50 votes needed to move forward on repealing Obamacare Tuesday. GOP Senators still cannot come to an agreement as they are stuck in gridlock Tuesday evening.
Via The Hill:
The Senate rejected a key proposal repealing and replacing ObamaCare on Tuesday night, as senators start a days-long debate on healthcare.
Senators voted 43-57 on a procedural hurdle for the measure that included the GOP repeal and a replace bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, as well as proposals from GOP Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Rob Portman (Ohio).
GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Bob Corker (Tenn.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Dean Heller (Nev.), Mike Lee (Utah), Jerry Moran(Kan.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Rand Paul (Ky.) voted against the repeal-replace proposal on the procedural hurdle. No Democrats voted for it.The proposal was the first amendment to get a vote after senators took up the House-passed healthcare bill, which is being used as a vehicle for any Senate action, earlier Tuesday.
“I’m not going to vote for something that’s a scaled down version, that’s a political punt,” Graham said earlier Tuesday. The South Carolina Republican will vote for the motion to proceed but added that a final product to fix the health care system should go through “regular order.”
Collins said the proposal wasn’t described at the weekly Senate GOP policy lunch.
“And so apparently that is an amendment that the leader would offer at the end,” she said. “I have no idea what’s going into that.”
And Republicans are considering making further changes to the repeal-and-replace plan. Administration officials and senators are discussing adding as much as $100 billion more to earlier drafts to help low-income people with premiums, Republicans said.
McConnell and his leadership team threw everything they had at wavering senators: the threat of political disaster if they fail, an open amendment process to allow their ideas to be debated — and the argument that a flawed Senate bill can be fixed later in conference negotiations with the House. Even McCain’s return was used as a sign of positive momentum.
“If we can get the bill through the Senate we can start negotiations with the House,” Cornyn said.
