Buckle your seatbelts because the Senate wants to vote on the new health care bill next week, and they plan on releasing it this week:
THE HILL – Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said on Monday that Senate Republicans want to roll out a new draft of their bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare as soon as this week, with a vote next week.
“We’re just trying to get a good picture of what the alternatives are, and hopefully next week we’ll be prepared to take the bill up and vote on it,” the No. 2 Senate Republican told reporters.
He added that Republicans are still waiting to hear back from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) but could release an updated draft of their bill by the end of the week.
A Senate GOP aide said senators are expected to get briefed on revisions that have been made to the bill at Tuesday’s lunch, and revised text of the bill could be released later this week.
Once again it sounds like they plan to release the bill and vote on it in a week’s time, which sounds to me like they’re rushing it through again. Now maybe a week is enough time for Senators to read and understand this new version of the bill, but it just seems quick to me, especially when you consider the time the American people should get to do the same.
Of course Trump is now pushing them to go ahead and get this done as well:
I cannot imagine that Congress would dare to leave Washington without a beautiful new HealthCare bill fully approved and ready to go!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2017
So there’s your presidential leadership right there. He just want’s a big beautiful health care bill approved and ready to go.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There’s a lot of doubt that this new bill will even be able to pass, so this whole discussion may all be moot in the end.
UPDATE:
The bill they release this week may not include the Cruz amendment, according to The Hill:
Senate Republicans sent two proposals to the CBO late last month, one including an amendment from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and one without.
But the amendment has drawn pushback from aides and other GOP senators, who warn that the proposal won’t be able to get enough support to pass.
Cornyn added on Monday that Republicans want to get “some basic information” from the CBO on the proposal.
“Everybody’s concerns need to be taken into account,” he said. “The goal is, though, once you secure support from one person, you don’t want to lose it from another. So you can see the challenge.”
I honestly don’t know how this bill will get through the Senate without the Cruz amendment. And if they hate the Cruz amendment too, then how does any heath care bill get passed?
UPDATE 2:
Politico reports that the Cruz amendment wasn’t even fully transmitted to the CBO, therefore it will be unable to render an analysis on the amendment:
Though Republicans are aiming to have a new CBO report of their latest proposal by early next week, it may not include an analysis of an amendment penned by GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas that would allow the sale of cheap insurance plans outside Obamacare’s regulatory structure.
Several Republicans said the so-called Consumer Freedom Act was not fully transmitted to CBO before the July Fourth recess, which could result in the incomplete analysis.
A conservative aide familiar with the negotiations said GOP leaders had only sent a summary of the legislation “for reasons unknown to us,” leaving supporters to answer other questions for CBO late last week. Allies of leadership, however, argued the conservatives had been unresponsive.
Wow this sounds kinda like sabotage to me if true.