Senate conservatives are revolting.
"The House [healthcare] bill as drafted, I do not believe, would pass the United States Senate," said Ted Cruz yesterday. Mike Lee agrees, as does Rand Paul. Hence the latter
is teaming up with members of the House Freedom Caucus to roll out an alternative repeal bill that mirrors 2015 legislation supported by conservatives.
But that measure, which goes further [to the right] than the current proposal, would likely alienate the moderate GOP senators who are already wary of the House legislation.
The moderates include Ohio's Rob Portman, West Virginia's Shelley Moore Capito, Colorado's Cory Gardner and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski. All have already expressed opposition to the House bill. Since the Senate has 52 Republicans and the bill would require 50 Republican votes (assuming unified Democratic opposition), the House's Obamacare-replacement bill, then, is unquestionably doomed — even if the House somehow miraculously passes it.
This, the revolting conservative senators know. So what's their solution? To offer up a bill that would be even more objectionable to Senate Republicans than the current bill is.
Said Paul Ryan, also yesterday: "I think what you’re seeing is: We’re going through the inevitable growing pains of being an opposition party to becoming a governing party." Ryan's "thinking" is demonstrably untrue. His conservative Freedom Caucus wing and the Senate's Cruz-Paul wing give not a fig about actual governance, as their exacerbating legislation shows.
