Update: Senate Delays Vote on Healthcare Bill

In a surprising turn of events, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has decided to delay a vote on President Donald Trump’s number one legislative priority: A sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

The opposition to barreling forward started on Monday when the Congressional Budget Office released its score of the bill that found more than 22 million Americans would lose health insurance under the GOP bill, which would also reduce deficit spending by $321 billion. But McConnell and members of his caucus are still negotiating the bill and hope to hold a vote on it after senators return from their Fourth of July recess.

"We’re continuing to talk about it – it’s a very complicated subject," McConnell told reporters after a closed door meeting with his Republican colleagues, which included Vice President Mike Pence, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Press Secretary Sean Spicer. “I remember how challenging it was for Democrats when they were enacting this back in 2009 and 2010. It’s a big complicated subject – a lot of discussions going on and a lot to listen to.”

Many rank and file Republicans are glad the leader delayed the vote, because several were planning to vote against proceeding to floor debate on the bill even though they support repealing Obamacare. Some Republicans were upset the bill was crafted in secret with little genuine input from lawmakers, while others, like Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) were demanding the bill fund Planned Parenthood. "I think that was an important step. I certainly wasn’t ready," Murkowski told reporters at the Capitol after the vote was delayed.

Still other Republicans want the bill to include more funding for the nation’s opioid crisis and other are jockeying for perks to boost their local insurance markets. But the topic is complex and is proving more difficult than the campaign slogans the GOP has run on for the past seven years.

"There’s a lot of work to be done," Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) says. “There’s not one insurance marketplace – there’s 50 and so every state has different needs and different concerns.” Still, GOP leaders say they aren’t giving up.

"We’re committed to get this done," Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) said after the closed door meeting. “When you’re limited with reconciliation, there are some things that we all agree on that ought to be in a bill that you can’t get in under the rules of reconciliation, so there are a lot of things that I would recommend to strengthen this that aren’t reconcilable.”

President Trump is trying to rally rank and file lawmakers behind the effort by inviting every Republican senator to the White House today for a discussion about the bill that touches one-sixth of the American economy. "It’s a conversation and we haven’t finished our conversation," Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) tells Countable.

Contact your senators using the Take Action button and let them know what you think!

Take Action

— Matt Laslo

(Photo Credit: Noclip / Creative Commons)