Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday pleaded with Republicans to green-light debate on health care legislation, saying the best way to get rid of Obamacare is to sift through ideas and see what sticks.
“It means voting to proceed, and that will occur tomorrow,” Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said.
The vote will determine whether the Senate takes up a House-passed bill so they can amend it with their own ideas, though the leader hasn’t said which alternative to Obamacare will take precedent if he can gather 50 votes to move forward.
Some Republicans want to replace the Affordable Care Act with the bill leaders crafted in recent weeks, while others want to revive a 2015 plan that would gut the law within two years, buying time for a replacement and forcing many GOP senators to replicate votes they took while President Obama was president.
Mr. McConnell noted that President Trump is ready to sign the bill this time around.
Still, others want to let states keep Obamacare or opt into a more conservative model, or take the money they would receive under the 2010 law and decide what to do with it.
SEE ALSO: Donald Trump calls Obamacare ‘big fat ugly lie,’ demanded Senate votes for repeal
Senate Democrats said it was unconscionable that Republican would push for a vote on something as monumental as health care without a clear endgame.
“It’s sort of like ’Alice in Wonderland’ here,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said, imploring Republicans to start over on bipartisan fixes to Obamacare’s ailing markets.
It is also unclear if any of the GOP’s plans can muster the votes for final passage, yet GOP leaders and Mr. Trump say dissatisfied senators should get on the bill and push for changes on the floor.
“I will vote ’yes’ on the motion to proceed, and I would urge all of our colleagues to do the same,” Mr. McConnell said.
Mr. Trump prodded his GOP troops from the White House, saying Tuesday’s vote offered their “last chance” to rewrite health care laws, while blasting Democrats as obstructions who sold the American people a “big fat, ugly lie” when they passed Obamacare in 2010.
“There is still time to do the right thing,” Mr. Trump said at the White House. “And for Senate Republicans, this is their chance to keep their promise.”
SEE ALSO: John Kasich, Ohio governor, blasts Senate GOP health care strategy
With Sen. John McCain absent and Democrats uniformly opposed, Republican leaders cannot afford more than one defection from their 52-seat GOP majority on the motion to proceed to debate. Mr. McCain said he wants to return to work as soon as possible, though he hasn’t provided a timeframe.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has moved to reject debate on either of the Senate GOP’s leading bills, so she is considered a firm “no.”
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, said Monday he will vote to proceed onto the bill if leaders decide to bring up the straight-repeal option first.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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