Senate Republicans delay August recess to work on health care

Facing increasing pressure to quickly pass a healthcare bill, Senate Majority Leader McConnell has delayed the start of the Senate’s August recess by two weeks. “If you were in school and you were getting failing grades in your spring semester, you better go to summer school, not take a recess”. It is to be noted that the bill is already facing a lot of unfavorable views and the senator’s prediction has only worsened the situation for the bill maker and the bill itself, further eroding its prospects of being passed through.

But keeping that promise at any cost would be even worse politics for Republicans, and many of them know that.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz on Sunday said failure to pass the bill was “not an option” and the Senate effort had to focus on lowering premiums.

Republicans maintain that they’re trying to contain Medicaid spending over the long term, but health care officials said the wave of Baby Boomers entering old age – many of whom have no retirement savings of their own – will make that very hard.

For instance, Sen. Susan Collins of ME says that while she appreciates the $45 billion earmarked to fight the opioid epidemic (felt everywhere, but especially in New England), she said: “That’s helpful, but it’s by no means sufficient”.

The Senate was forced to delay a vote on the bill until after the July 4 recess after the Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would increase the number of people without health coverage by 22 million and cut the deficit by $321 billion by 2026.

“They’re going in the opposite direction, and the way that Washington typically works, they get your vote by offering you more money for a pet cause”, Paul argued.

“When it comes to repealing Obamacare, what I think is critical is that Republicans, we’ve got to honor the promise we made to the voters that millions of Americans are hurting under Obamacare”, Cruz said. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to move the U.S.to a single-payer health care system. John McCain stated the obvious in a sensible way: If the current bill fails, he said, Republicans should allow Democrats to become “part of the process”. Meanwhile that labeling makes Democrats, who have differences within their own party on health care, feel free to simply oppose the GOP effort without having to say much else.

Republican Senator Pat Toomey told CNBC’s The Squawk Box Monday morning that a new version of the heathcare bill would be unveiled today, according to CNBC.

It repeals most Obamacare taxes, overhauls the law’s tax credits and ends its Medicaid expansion.