Senate Republicans claim progress on health care legislation

Some aides and outside observers have even floated the possibility that McConnell would bring the bill up for a vote even if he did not have all the votes, pointing to the need to move on to tax reform and the must-pass issues, like the debt ceiling and funding the government, on Congress’ plate in the fall.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a key moderate in the GOP’s health debate, said that he was more optimistic about the Senate plan than he had been.

“We’re going to have a vote one way or the other”, Sen.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) could move forward with the House version of the bill without making further changes, Enzi noted in a statement.

To combat the idea that Trump’s momentum is stalled, the White House has begun to set up a series of week-long policy pushes to spur movement.

It is not too much of a stretch to say that at this point Senate Republicans do not merely disagree on the details. In this case, most GOP plans would lower rates but also eliminate some tax breaks and loopholes.

“They need to be willing to completely drop repeal”, the leadership aide said, describing the message from Democrats and Republicans as: “We’re ready to sit down and work with you as soon as you guys tell us you’re off repeal. We have the ability to send a commonsense budget to the Senate ahead of the deadline, and I hope to see my colleagues take advantage of this opportunity”, said Collins. And so now is the time to start coming up with some tangible alternatives and building consensus.

The policy divisions within the Republican conference are significant.

He said that he doesn’t believe states can afford to keep Medicaid expansion under current law.

President Donald Trump is meeting congressional leaders on Tuesday to push for efforts to overhaul the US healthcare and tax systems, as investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election campaign weigh on his administration. It’s unclear when a physical draft of the bill will be produced. Topics of discussion included both tax reform and the GOP healthcare bill, which is now sitting in the Senate after the House narrowly passed a first draft last month. But she added: “I’m not saying I support phasing it out”.

However, adjusting the tax credits for income and geographic location would make them even more similar to Obamacare’s premium subsidies, which are tax credits based on income and cost of coverage in one’s area. No matter what President Trump or the Republicans do, Democrats would rather fight than be right. And Senator Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri echoed that the discussions are now at the “granular” level. Some have openly doubted that the talks are leading anywhere positive. Over the Memorial Day recess, Sen.

The most negative comments came from North Carolina Sen.

There has been little progress on healthcare since the House passed its bill.

If we don’t let the president and Members of Congress know that we are paying attention to what’s happening, then they will not pay attention to us. Several centrist members remain vehemently opposed to deep cuts to the program, while their conservative counterparts continue to favor rolling it back.

The House bill allows states to get waivers to charge people with preexisting conditions more, but Barrasso suggested that concept isn’t popular in the Senate: “I want to make sure people with preexisting conditions are protected. You don’t want to slow things down when you have all three levers of power”, Cole said, referring to the White House, Senate and House.

Democrats have pointed to that strategy as irrefutable proof that Republicans have no interest in reaching across the aisle on health care. “And exactly what the composition of that [bill] is I’m not going to speculate about because it serves no objective”, the Kentucky Republican told Reuters, adding that President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence could help whip votes again as they did for the House. Patty Murray said. “And the minute they get 50 votes, this bill will be on the floor”.

Republicans, like Graham, are hopeful that the meeting will lead to more coordination between the White House and Capitol Hill.