Senate Republicans claim progress on health care legislation

When Graham criticized Paul’s stance on surveillance, where he frequently aligns with Democrats, the Kentucky Republican told Reason magazine that some of Graham’s comments don’t “rise beyond middle school kind of rhetoric”.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his negotiators are putting pen to paper to see where his troops stand as the effort moves into a do-or-die phase. Over 400,000 Louisiana residents gained access to health care through the Medicaid expansion, but Louisiana Sen. Other senators declined, however, to explicitly address the waivers, as the Senate bill is being written.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price’s speech came as Trump declared from Washington that he’s sure the Senate will get a health care bill “across the finish line” this summer.

Still, Republicans have little margin for error because they only control 52 seats in the 100-seat chamber and remain divided over key questions such as how quickly to scale back the Medicaid health plan for the poor.

Trump has pressed for quicker action in Congress, but his administration has also been hampered by investigations into alleged ties between Trump’s election campaign and Russian Federation.

Trump’s own shifting policy positions have left Ryan and McConnell struggling to lead restive Republicans in a coherent strategy.

As for a package on infrastructure, which has been the White House’s policy focus this week, Short said the goal is to accomplish legislation “this calendar year”. Other senior Republicans say they hope to vote by early July.

Mnuchin recently told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the administration wanted Congress to increase the nation’s borrowing authority this summer before it heads out on the five-week late summer recess.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy confirmed there was no talk of former FBI Director James Comey’s upcoming congressional testimony during the meeting, telling reporters the president largely discussed Obamacare reforms, inquiring where senators are in the process.

It is not too much of a stretch to say that at this point Senate Republicans do not merely disagree on the details. Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, said in an interview Friday “it’s unlikely we will get a deal” and that he does not see “see a comprehensive health care plan this year” coming out of the Senate. “More people will tell you they can spend the money a whole lot more wiser than government can spend it”, Sen.

Some Republican leaders sound much more like they are wishing that will happen than are counting on it. Ted Cruz of Texas, praise this strategy. One of its key provisions, an auto-enrollment feature that would automatically put individual consumers on a bare-bones plan as a way of expanding the risk pool, is reportedly on the table in the broader conference-wide discussions.

“Just listening to the debate over the past few weeks, I think cobbling together a bill that could get 50 votes is going to be a challenge, but you never know”, said GOP Sen. After House Republicans found a way to pass a bill, senators don’t want to be the ones responsible for failing to undo Obamacare. “We don’t have allocations yet”, said Sen. “I think it’s our responsibility”.

But months into his administration, Trump’s top legislative achievement is getting health care reform through the Republican-controlled House, a feat that took two attempts after the first failed to garner enough conservative support. I most assuredly did not run on replacing Obamacare with Obamacare-lite. Many states also rely on Medicaid for treatment in the opioid crisis. “It was a very liberal bill”.

If McConnell can not bridge the Medicaid divide, he may have to refocus efforts on more limited legislation to rescue insurance markets across the country that have been battered by the political turmoil in Washington. I pledged to replace Obamacare with the freedom to buy low-priced insurance, to save tax free to help purchase healthcare, and to be free to join a group to get discounted health insurance.

Another major insurer, Anthem, said Tuesday it is pulling out of Ohio’s exchange, leaving 20 of Ohio’s 88 counties without an option next year.

And Sen. Richard Burr told a local North Carolina news station last week that he didn’t expect a healthcare deal to get done in 2017 and was focusing on actions created to stabilize the individual insurance market instead. A tax overhaul that’s a top Trump priority is unwritten and in dispute, despite his recent claim on Twitter that it’s ahead of schedule.