Ted Cruz doubtful of health care vote by July 4

Sen. Ted Cruz said Tuesday the Senate isn’t ready to vote on health care, and may not be by the July 4 recess.

“Well we’re not there yet. In the Senate, we’ve got a really narrow majority, 52 Republicans, we’ve got to get at least 50 on the same page. We’re not there yet,” the Texas Republican said on Fox News.

Mr. Cruz said he’d like the focus to be on lowering premiums.

“The working group started with a small group of six senators, that Lamar Alexander and I brought together, and have been talking about this for many months, working to get to common ground, the current draft doesn’t do nearly enough to bring down premiums,” he said. “But I think if we focus on lowering premiums we can bring together conservatives, we can bring together moderates, we can unify Republicans and actually fulfill the mandate the American people sent us here to do.”

But Mr. Cruz emphasized that health care reform is just one of several big priorities for Republicans before the end of the year.

“I certainly hope so,” he said. “In my view there are four big priorities in 2017: repeal Obamacare, fundamental tax reform, major reg reform and the Supreme Court.”