Both Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine have been obstinately against almost every bill this year that would replace Obamacare. Here are there stories, by Quin Hillyer at Liberty Headlines:
Will Rand Paul save Obamacare? — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky continues to stand as the most unyielding obstacle to Congress’ last-ditch effort to replace Obamacare with a set of health-care policies that is far more conservative.
At this writing mid-day Wednesday, Sept. 20, Senate Republican leaders continue workingto get the 50 votes needed to pass the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson (henceforth GCHJ) plan to destroy the national bureaucratic superstructure of Obamacare and send the money and policy choices back to the states.
Without Paul’s vote, leaders can lose only one more of the 52 Senate Republicans if they hope to pass the bill, since no Democrats have yet shown any interest in it. President Trump fully supports the bill.
Paul oddly calls GCHJ “just another big government boondoggle,” even as liberal Vox reporter Sarah Kliff writes, in total contrast to Paul, that “while other Republican plans essentially create a poorly funded version of the Affordable Care Act, Graham-Cassidy blows it up.”…. [The full story is here.]
Maine’s Susan Collins ignores own state’s experience: Continuing a months-long dispute, Maine’s conservative Republican governor is lashing out at the state’s two U.S. senators – one a Republican liberal, the other an Independent, Angus King, who caucuses with the Democrats – to try to shame them into helping replace Obamacare.
The dispute is especially bitter between Gov. Paul LePage and Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Collins cast a key vote to kill the prior effort to replace Obamacare, and she and King are both leaning against the Graham-Cassidy bill that is the last hope this fiscal year (which ends Sept. 30) to topple Obamacare’s bureaucratic superstructure.
Oddly enough, Collins had paired with the co-author of the current bill, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, on an earlier Obamacare replacement plan that shared significant design characteristics with the Graham-Cassidy bill she now balks at. Both bills sent federal money in “block grants” back to the states while giving states significant leeway to design their own plans….. [The full story is here.]
