No, the GOP isn’t giving up:
The Cassidy-Graham proposal hasn’t been scored by the Congressional Budget Office, which would be required if it were to receive a vote under the fast-track budget “reconciliation” procedure. There is also no bill text publicly available. The plan would keep intact most of Obamacare’s taxes except the medical device tax, send federal health care funds to the states in block grants, kill Obamacare’s individual mandate and maintain protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
Trump pressured aides over the weekend to show progress, and the Graham-Cassidy proposal is seen as one possible way forward. Administration officials have sought to bring together Graham and Cassidy, along with conservative Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows of North Carolina, to agree on a proposal. For now, the effort is mostly supported by mostly rank-and-file GOP lawmakers.
Basically, if they can find a bill that will appease McCain, they will have a bill that can pass.
It is true they did not pass the Skinny Repeal.
It is also true they were one vote short. Can they find a way to get McCain to vote for something? My guess is yes.
Can they do that and get the same bill past the House?
I have no idea.
And neither does anyone else.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/31/obamacare-repeal-white-house-effort-241168
That description makes it almost the same as skinny repeal. I think it’s very unlikely they’ll flip Collins or Murkowski.
Right now McCain is undergoing chemo, which makes it a really bad idea for him to come in for a vote. As long as he doesn’t show up and Collins and Murkowski (and the Dems) stay no, it fails.
This also reveals how fake Cassidy’s push to come up with a semi-tolerable replacement for Obamacare was. He said he wanted something workable but then authors this garbage.
The goal I assume is to have it ready when McCain comes back.
I think McCain may have had more problems with the process than with the bill itself.
They can’t flip Collins. Flipping Murkowski I think requires leaving Medicaid alone, which is a nonstarter in the House.
Murkowski opposed “skinny repeal” even though it didn’t have Medicaid cuts. So she has a little more motive – either she doesn’t trust the conference, she’s sticking up for the exchanges as well, or she just wants the whole process stopped for political reasons.
Must be a bad description then because I’m pretty sure “Cassidy-Graham” includes Medicaid cuts, which “skinny” didn’t include.
Anyway, it’s pretty much over:
Dejected Republicans on Obamacare repeal: Barring a miracle, ‘it’s over’
They need to make a choice at this point: taxes or health care. They’re going to pick taxes, and fail at that, too.
Never say never.
Listen. And Understand.
Glad you are certain about the end game here.
I am not.
I’m pretty certain anything with Medicaid cuts is dead, or at least the degree to which they’d need to make cuts to change the baseline to do tax cuts through reconciliation. So, they had 49 votes for some empty shell — Graham Cassidy isn’t an empty shell, it’s an actual bill. It will have fewer than 49 votes for that reason.
Passing an empty shell with the promise of fixing it in conference was their only hope, in that momentum and inertia would have pushed it over the line (“don’t want to be remembered for killing this do you?”)