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With the shot clock about to expire, Republicans on Capitol Hill may have the ball in their hands again for another chance at what was supposed to be an easy lay-up. Yesterday, Sen. John McCain — who stuck a stake through the heart of the previous ObamaCare repeal effort — announced that he would endorse the only vehicle left remaining. McCain even said that he’d put aside his distaste for operating outside regular order to vote for the Lindsey Graham-Bill Cassidy version of repeal-and-replace: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that he supports a newer version of an ObamaCare...

The Senate rejection of repeal of ObamaCare, coupled with its obvious failure, leaves Americans in a hell of a mess. Because of the inherent problems in the ObamaCare law, premiums will continue to skyrocket and outpace subsidies. More insurance firms will refuse to participate and people will be stuck. In addition, President Trump is likely to take two actions that are good policies but will worsen the situation: 1. He will probably direct his agencies, including the IRS, to stop enforcing the requirement that everybody buy insurance. Last year, six million people ran afoul of the requirement and had to...

Sorry if there is a thread; I didn't see it. McCain, Collins, and Murkowski voted No. Republicans spent 7 years promising this, and they couldn't get it done. The Republicans don't like Trump all that much, but he is willing to fulfill their promise that they made. Meanwhile, McCain, the GOP hero, helped kill their promise.

The Senate voted narrowly on Tuesday to begin debate on a bill to repeal major provisions of the Affordable Care Act, but hours later, Republican leaders suffered a setback when their most comprehensive plan to replace President Barack Obama’s health law fell far short of the votes it needed. The Tuesday night tally needed to reach 60 votes to overcome a parliamentary objection. Instead, it fell 43-57. The fact that the comprehensive replacement plan came up well short of even 50 votes was an ominous sign for Republican leaders still grappling with a formula to pass final health care legislation...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has locked in this week's attempt to repeal Obamacare, by scheduling a vote on Tuesday to start debate on the legislation. "The only way we'll have an opportunity to consider ideas is if senators have an opportunity to offer and debate them and that means kicking off debate, it means voting to proceed," McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday on the Senate floor. "And that will occur tomorrow." The announcement comes as Republicans struggle to garner the 50 GOP votes needed to let them move onto the bill, and as the party debates how to replace Obamacare...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) says she will not support moving forward with a plan to repeal ObamaCare with a delayed replacement, effectively killing the latest legislative gambit from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). With Murkowski's defection, GOP leaders do not have the votes to move forward to an ObamaCare repeal bill that passed the Senate in 2015, but was vetoed by then-President Obama. Earlier Tuesday, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) also said they will not support moving to the repeal-only bill. Republicans can only afford two defections if Vice President Pence breaks a tie.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a leading conservative in the U.S. Senate and driving force on the healthcare debate that has played out this year, told Breitbart News exclusively on Tuesday he is pleased that the U.S. Senate is going to move forward on efforts to pass a clean partial repeal of Obamacare. Paul, one of the four GOP U.S. Senators who publicly opposed the Senate health bill that aimed to simultaneously repeal and replace Obamacare leading to its eventual demise, has been driving debate on healthcare in the U.S. Congress. In the wake of the Senate bill’s ultimate failure on...

After a repeated series of false starts, Senate Republicans are meeting again Wednesday night in an attempt to bring their healthcare bill back from the dead. The renewed attempt comes amid a flurry of mixed signals form leadership and whiplash-inducing shifts from President Donald Trump.

Hoping to avoid a humiliating political defeat, President Trump on Wednesday demanded that Republican senators resume their efforts to approve a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, insisting that lawmakers are “very close.” A day after the GOP strategy to roll back the ACA appeared dead, Trump invited Republican senators to lunch at the White House and challenged them to work out an agreement even if it means remaining in Washington through their summer recess next month. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had previously announced that the recess would be delayed by two weeks.

President Trump on Wednesday told Republican senators he doesn’t want Congress to leave Washington for the August recess until lawmakers pass a health care bill. “Frankly, I don’t think we should leave town unless we have a health insurance plan, unless we can give our people great health care,” Trump said during a lunch with senators at the White House. “Because we’re close. We’re very close.”  All Republican senators were invited to lunch with the president on Wednesday in the State Dining Room to discuss the stalled efforts to push through health care legislation in Congress.  The Senate Republicans' latest...

Health Reform: There were lots of celebrations on the left side of the aisle after the Senate GOP bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare died. The good times will be short lived, because one way or another ObamaCare is going away, and it's not at all clear that Democrats will gain additional leverage over what comes next by waiting for its collapse. It was amusing to hear Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer say, after the Senate bill failed, that Republicans should "work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health...

It is "pretty clear there are not 50 Republicans at the moment for a replacement," McConnell said at a news conference following an all-GOP Senate lunch. But he still insisted that there would be a repeal-only vote "in the very near future." While the Kentucky Republican did not specify when that vote would be, Senate GOP whip John Cornyn told reporters afterward that the it would likely happen some time this week.

It would appear Mitch McConnell, and the larger congress, just lit the fuse on “the big ugly“. Winter is coming • President Trump has requested all Republican Senators to attend a White House luncheon, held entirely in their honor, tomorrow. • President Trump has also announced a MAGA rally to be held in Youngstown Ohio, next week. • Not coincidentally this rally announcement comes on the same day Ohio governor John Kasich writes an op-ed in the New York Times gleefully celebrating the defeat of the senate healthcare reform and ObamaCare repeal. • HHS Secretary Tom Price is NOT HAPPY....

Why can’t Republicans in Congress pass health-care reform? This is the question to ask after the Republican Senate leadership’s plan was stabbed to death by conservative Senate Republicans. The answer is shockingly simple: Republican voters do not actually want health-care reform — and these elected officials are just doing the bidding of their constituents. Those voters could have been led to support the Republican efforts on Capitol Hill by a new president who carefully and conscientiously laid out the fatal problems of ObamaCare and how a new plan would fix what was broken and even create a new path to...

Many years ago we accepted the UniParty.  Shortly thereafter CTH broke away from political identity framed around arguments of party and personality; we chose to focus on policy and outcomes.  Washington DC is a singular party, a UniParty. We have been explaining, countering and fighting “The Big Club” in DC for years; always following the money. President Trump is the first political entity in our lifetime that not only comprehends the faces of the false arguments (the personalities of false choice and controlled opposition), but more importantly sees the architects behind the Potemkin villages represented by those faces. When it...

Republicans are finally getting smart on Obamacare. It took one of the savviest Republican senators -- Ted Cruz of Texas, with an assist from Mike Lee of Utah -- to get the GOP to figure out how to replace Obamacare, reduce premiums and save money for the government, all without alienating millions of voters. He's pulled the Republicans' fannies out of the fire, flipping a losing strategy into a big-time winner. The Cruz amendment -- which has been inserted into the GOP Senate health plan -- is smart, because it doesn't take anything away from anyone. If you want Obamacare,...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Monday night the Senate will try to separate the ObamaCare repeal and replacement efforts, closing the door on the current GOP healthcare legislation. "In the coming days, the Senate will vote to take up the House bill with the first amendment in order being what a majority of the Senate has already supported in 2015 and that was vetoed by then-President Obama: a repeal of Obamacare with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period," McConnell said in a statement. The move means Senate Republicans will try to repeal ObamaCare...

GOP Sens. Jerry Moran (Kansas) and Mike Lee (Utah) announced on Monday night they will not support taking up a bill repealing and replacing ObamaCare, effectively blocking the legislation. "This closed-door process has yielded the [bill], which fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcare’s rising costs. For the same reasons I could not support the previous version of this bill, I cannot support this one," Moran said in a statement. Lee added on Twitter that "my colleague @JerryMoran and I will not support the MTP to this version of BCRA."

[Cruz's] Provision would allow insurers to sell plans that aren’t compliant with Affordable Care Act

Republicans have never been closer to actually repealing large chunks of what they dismiss as “Obamacare.” Within two short weeks, the GOP will likely either be reveling in their unexpected victory or mired in deep infighting over the party’s failure to live up to a pledge it has made over the last seven years. Some Republicans remain optimistic — and Democrats fearful — that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) can pull off the negotiating tricks necessary, but he still faces an uphill fight in winning the votes to pass the Better Care Reconciliation Act by his tentative deadline of...