“We’ve tried to do this by coming up with a proposal behind closed doors in consultation with the administration, then springing it on skeptical members, trying to convince them it’s better than nothing, asking us to swallow our doubts and force it past a unified opposition,” Republican Senator John McCain said on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
“I don’t think that is going to work in the end. And it probably shouldn’t,” he added in dramatic remarks after returning from surgery and being diagnosed with brain cancer.
McCain appealed to McConnell to start over by having a Senate committee, in a bipartisan way, craft new healthcare legislation.
His proposal was ignored.
‘Skinny’ Bill Gets Traction
As senators grind through potentially scores of amendments in coming days – in a process called a “vote-a-rama” – they will have to worry about more than scorn from McCain, who did back the second vote on Republican’s repeal and replace plan.
Trump attacked opposing members from his own party, targeting Lisa Murkowski by name in an early morning tweet on Wednesday. Aides to the senator from Alaska did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The other opposing Republicans in Tuesday’s second vote included Senators Susan Collins, Bob Corker, Tom Cotton, Lindsey Graham, Dean Heller, Mike Lee, Jerry Moran and Rand Paul.
Healthcare industry organizations are also similarly troubled and have urged a more bipartisan effort.
The Republican drive to repeal and replace Obamacare has taken many unexpected turns since the House of Representatives began working on its version of legislation in March.
For now, many Republican senators are wondering whether they may end up going to a Plan B – a “skinny” healthcare bill that would simply end Obamacare’s penalties for individuals and employers that do not obtain or provide health insurance, as well as abolish a medical device tax.
It would then be up to a special Senate-House committee to finalize a bill that could still change during negotiations. If that effort succeeded, the full House and Senate would again have to approve the legislation.
While it remained to be seen what the final legislation will look like, the possible components of the bill were clear.
After Tuesday’s nail-biter Senate vote setting up the floor debate, McConnell may have best summed up the landscape facing the chamber’s 100 senators.
“This is just the beginning,” he told reporters.