Senate Republicans spent the last few weeks making one last desperate push to repeal Obamacare.
But as they neared a final deadline, it became clear: They were never really all that close.
Senator Susan Collins said Monday the bill would cause too many Americans to lose insurance, while Rand Paul said it preserved too many of the federal subsidies for health care — even after the bill’s authors made a spate of last-minute changes to win them over. Their opposition followed John McCain’s declaration last week that it was too hasty and partisan, as the GOP raced to meet a Sept. 30 deadline.
Their firm stances against it — each for a very different reason — underscore the difficulty Republicans face in trying to make dramatic changes to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Even though most Republicans relish replacing President Barack Obama’s signature achievement with something less costly and more flexible, doing so is all but impossible with wafer-thin control of one of the chambers.
Read more at Bloomberg.
