{"id":78963,"date":"2017-07-27T11:24:56","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T15:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=78963"},"modified":"2017-07-27T11:25:33","modified_gmt":"2017-07-27T15:25:33","slug":"senate-gop-leader-says-skinny-obamacare-repeal-has-best-chance-at-getting-us-to-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=78963","title":{"rendered":"Senate GOP Leader Says &#8220;Skinny&#8221; Obamacare Repeal Has &#8220;Best Chance At Getting Us To Conference&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more-->ZeroHedge.com<\/p>\n<p>Right on schedule, President Donald Trump is out with his latest tweet urging Republicans to pass health-care reform: &#8220;Come on Republican Senators, you can do it on Healthcare. After 7 years, this is your chance to shine! Don&#8217;t let the American people down!&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Come on Republican Senators, you can do it on Healthcare. After 7 years, this is your chance to shine! Don&#39;t let the American people down!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/890533442135502849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 27, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"SandboxRoot env-bp-350\" data-twitter-event-id=\"0\"><\/div>\n<p><strong><em>* * *<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Like they say, third time&#8217;s the charm.<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump may have spoken too soon when he praised Senate Republicans as \u201cpatriots\u201d who would swiftly put an end to the \u201ctyranny\u201d of Obamacare earlier this week after the chamber passed a crucial motion to proceed with a plan to repeal the controversial health-care law.<\/p>\n<p>But that plan, as well as the Senate&#8217;s repeal-and-replace alternative, have now been rejected. So, with few options remaining, the Senate Republican leadership\u00a0<strong>now believes its best chance of passing health-care reform by the end of the week lies with a so-called\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2017-07-26\/whats-next-obamacare-repeal-primer-goldman-and-citi\">\u201cskinny repeal\u201d<\/a>\u00a0bill that was drafted last week.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pundits seem to agree.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2017-07-26\/whats-next-obamacare-repeal-primer-goldman-and-citi\">Goldman\u2019s Alec Phillips<\/a>\u00a0believes there\u2019s a\u00a0<strong>\u201csomewhat greater probability\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0of skinny repeal passing, though he still thinks the most likely scenario would be a Republican surrender: &#8220;We believe the status quo is more likely to be maintained,&#8221; he said in a research note.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/user245717\/imageroot\/2017\/07\/27\/2017.07.27mcconnell.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/user245717\/imageroot\/2017\/07\/27\/2017.07.27mcconnell_0.JPG\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The skinny repeal bill would eliminate three of Obamacare\u2019s most controversial features: The individual and employee mandates, and the tax on medical devices. But its biggest advantage over the other two Republican options was unwittingly revealed by Democrats, who asked the CBO to score the bill.<\/p>\n<p>Turns out, a \u201cskinny\u201d Obamacare repeal\u00a0<strong>would result in only 16 million people losing their insurance, compared with 22 million for the second draft of the Senate plan, and 32 million for full repeal,<\/strong>\u00a0according to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/344013-bare-bones-repeal-plan-gains-steam-in-senate\">the Hill.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Majority whip John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in Senate leadership, told\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/344013-bare-bones-repeal-plan-gains-steam-in-senate\">the Hill<\/a>\u00a0that skinny repeal could be Republicans\u2019 best, and last, hope to unravel Obamacare.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div class=\"quote_start\"><strong>\u201c Cornyn\u2026told reporters Wednesday that a scaled-down bill might be the best way to move forward on the issue, possibly by holding a conference committee with the House, which approved a broader repeal-and-replace bill.\u201d<\/strong><\/div>\n<p>It\u00a0<strong>\u201cseems to have a lot of benefits, getting us to conference,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0Cornyn said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>According to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-usa-healthcare-idUSKBN1AC1G0?il=0\">Reuters,<\/a>\u00a0a draft of the skinny bill will be released at some point on Thursday, before the Senate \u201cembarks on a marathon voting session\u201d that could continue into Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p>The irony of this whole process is that, once Republicans muster the votes to pass a health-care bill, its contents, whether it\u2019s repeal and replace, or some variation of a repeal bill, won\u2019t matter all that much. Once the legislation clears the upper chamber, the Senate will form a conference committee with the House to draft an entirely new \u201ccompromise\u201d bill.\u00a0<strong>Then lawmakers will need to repeat the whole process, passing the final version of the legislation in the House, and then again in the Senate, before it lands on President Donald Trump\u2019s desk.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To be sure, the skinny bill might not be Republicans\u2019 only alternative. According to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-usa-healthcare-idUSKBN1AC1G0?il=0\">Reuters,<\/a>\u00a0Democrats are accusing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are drafting a fourth health-care reform plan in secret. Facing united opposition from Democrats, Republicans have failed to secure the minimum 50 votes needed to pass a bill (a 50-50 split would presumably lead to a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence).\u00a0<strong>With only a slim majority of 52-48, the leadership has struggled to placate both moderates, who oppose cuts to Medicaid, and conservatives, who criticized a senate plan they believed to be \u201cObamacare-lite.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2017-07-27\/senate-gop-leader-says-skinny-obamacare-repeal-has-best-chance-getting-us-conference\">http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2017-07-27\/senate-gop-leader-says-skinny-obamacare-repeal-has-best-chance-getting-us-conference<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}