By Sarah K. Burris / 07.18.2017
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) attempted to blame Democrats for the failure of the law known as Trumpcare that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
During a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, McConnell said that it was sad that Democrats were celebrating the failure of the Republican Party’s bill. Neither McConnell nor President Donald Trump ever reached out to Democrats on the bill and Democrats refused to deal on a bill that would “repeal and replace Obamacare.” Instead, they have said that they prefer to “fix Obamacare.”
“These are not just numbers on a page these are real people,” McConnell said.
Many of those “real people” protested the GOP’s bill. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) experienced packed town hall meetings in sparsely populated west Kansas, in which rural hospitals and residents begged him to vote against the bill. Moran announced his opposition to the bill along with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) Monday evening.
Recent polling reveals the majority of Americans want to keep Obamacare.
“I regret that the effort to immediately repeal and replace Obamacare will not be successful,” he continued. “That doesn’t mean we should give up. We will now try a different way to bring the American people relief from Obamacare.”
While McConnell said that he would try a new approach, that approach did not appear to be a bipartisan one. Democrats have urged a more bipartisan approach and supported McConnell coming together with them.
“The Senate will pick up and vote on repeal Obamacare combined with a stable two-year transition period as toward patient centered health care,” he said as the “new approach.” The move is part of the 2015 bill the Senate developed which would double premiums and kick 32 million off of healthcare, according to the CBO score.
“A majority of the senate voted to pass the same repeal legislation back in 2015. President Obama vetoed it then. President Trump will sign it now,” he said.
However, Republicans also do not have the votes to simply repeal the Affordable Care Act. Their new strategy – just let Obamacare fail. Does that mean they won’t even repair the things that everyone agrees need to be repaired? Are children whining about the easy fix on their toy because they couldn’t get the one they wanted? It seems so.
House Speaker Paul Ryan then came out to speak to the press saying that he has done his job and passed his version of the repeal and replacement.
Trump was reportedly “blindsided” by the inability to pass the GOP bill despite a Republican majority in the House and Senate.