When a conservative Republican senator tells conservative Republican House members it’s time to „start over“ on health care, the impact is real.<\/b>
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is in a fairly unusual position. On the one hand, he\u2019s an ambitious, far-right Republican, a loyal partisan, and a fierce red-state critic of anything related to Barack Obama\u2019s presidency. When looking for GOP senators who\u2019d be inclined to support the House Republicans\u2019 American Health Care Act \u2013 what some are calling \u201cTrumpcare\u201d \u2013 one might assume the Arkansan would stick with his party.
But on the other hand, Cotton recently hosted a contentious town-hall forum with his constituents, where he was reminded that Arkansas has benefited more from the Affordable Care Act than almost any other state. The senator may hate \u201cObamacare,\u201d but he also isn\u2019t eager to strip away health security for hundreds of thousands of people in his home state.
And with that in mind, when Cotton this morning called on House Republicans to \u201cstart over\u201d on a new reform bill, it jolted GOP politics quite a bit.
[Cotton] drew swift attention Thursday morning when he tweeted that the House should \u201cstart over\u201d in its process. \u201cHouse health-care bill can\u2019t pass Senate [without] major changes. To my friends in House: pause, start over. Get it right, don\u2019t get it fast,\u201d Cotton wrote from his political account.
\u201cGOP shouldn\u2019t act like Dems did in O\u2019care. No excuse to release bill Mon night, start voting Wed. With no budget estimate!\u201d he continued. \u201cWhat matters in long run is better, more affordable health care for Americans, NOT House leaders\u2019 arbitrary legislative calendar.\u201d
Let\u2019s note for the record that Cotton is mistaken about how the Affordable Care Act was passed.
But even putting this aside, the Arkansas senator\u2019s online comments carried considerable weight and reinforce perceptions that \u201cTrumpcare\u201d is in serious trouble.
Remember, while the fate of the AHCA is unclear in the House \u2013 Speaker Paul Ryan this week \u201cguaranteed\u201d passage, but he\u2019s the only one who appears convinced \u2013 its chances in the Senate deteriorate more every day. If only three Senate Republicans balk in the upper chamber, the bill dies.
As of yesterday, I counted seven GOP senators who\u2019ve publicly expressed skepticism, if not outright opposition, and adding Cotton to the mix brings the new total to eight. (Texas\u2019 Ted Cruz also raised criticisms yesterday, upping the number of possible opponents to nine \u2013 six more than necessary to kill the bill.)
These developments are also emblematic of Paul Ryan\u2019s colossal screw-up. The Republican Speaker not only wrote a bad bill behind closed doors, he didn\u2019t even try to secure any buy-in from stakeholders, governors, Democrats, or as Cotton is reminding us, senators in Ryan\u2019s own party.
And yet, at least for now, House Republicans just don\u2019t seem to care. On Tuesday, House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) expressed outrage that the Affordable Care Act was \u201cwritten in the dark of night and rushed through Congress.\u201d Brady\u2019s committee nevertheless quickly moved to the markup phase of his party\u2019s reform bill culminating in a vote at 4:30 a.m. this morning.
In other words, the Republican health care plan passed out of committee \u201c exactly 58.5 hours after it was introduced ,\u201d even though members, by their own admission, have no idea how much the proposal would cost, how many Americans would cover, or even how it would work if applied.
I don\u2019t agree with Tom Cotton about much of anything, but his advice to the Republican-led House appears sound: \u201cPause, start over. Get it right, don\u2019t get it fast.\u201d
* Correction : I originally misstated a detail about a Ways & Means committee hearing. The above text has been corrected.<\/p>\n

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