Kentucky GOP senator Rand Paul met with reporters Monday in his Capitol Hill offices to discuss his opposition to Graham-Cassidy, the last-ditch effort to repeal and replace Obamacare that would turn most of Obamacare’s funding into block grants and provide waivers from Obamacare’s regulations to…
Kentucky GOP senator Rand Paul met with reporters Monday in his Capitol Hill offices to discuss his opposition to Graham-Cassidy, the last-ditch effort to repeal and replace Obamacare that would turn most of Obamacare’s funding into block grants and provide waivers from Obamacare’s regulations to the states.
Paul made a three-fold argument against the bill: 1) it keeps too much of Obamacare’s spending 2) it’s funding formula takes from Democratic states and gives to Republican states and 3) it’s 2020 implementation date is too soon for states to smoothly transition away from Obamacare.
« My view is it keeps 90 percent of Obamacare and redistributes the proceeds, » Paul told reporters. « It takes money from the Democrat states and gives it to the Republican states. » The bill redistributes Obamacare’s Medicaid-expansion money nationwide, so states that expanded Medicaid like California and New York would get much less but non-expansion states like Virginia and Wisconsin would get more. « It’s going to be hard for a [House] Republican from California or a Republican from New York to vote to take that much money and give it to other states, » Paul said. Paul’s Kentucky expanded Medicaid.
« Obamacare took a long time to get in place, » Paul added, referring to difficulties some states and the federal government had building websites where people could purchase subsidized health insurance. « Can you imagine every state’s got to go through this, and you have to start completely over with all these different subsidies at the state level? Some will have subsidies, some won’t. Some states may go to a single-payer. I mean, I think it will be a chaotic sort of nature for two years. » The bill wouldn’t do away with state-based exchanges, but those states would need to come up with their own way of administering the funds.
Though Utah senator Mike Lee, perhaps the most conservative sitting senator, found Graham-Cassidy’s states waivers from Obamacare’s regulations » encouraging, » Paul dismissed the waivers as a reason to vote for a bill that keeps most of Obamacare’s spending. Paul also dismissed the pro-life arguments for the bill.
National anti-abortion groups endorsed the bill last week because reconciliation is the only way the Senate can defund Planned Parenthood and cut off Obamacare’s taxpayer-funding of insurance plans that cover elective abortions .
Asked how he weighed those priorities against his belief that Graham-Cassidy isn’t much better than Obamacare, Paul replied: « I don’t vote for any money for abortion, and I’m pro-life. But I also don’t think that every piece of legislation that doesn’t promise to fund abortion is a good piece of legislation. »
« If you told me, OK, we’re going to have a bill next week and it’s going to be ‘Obamacare times three’—we’re going to spend $3 trillion over 10 years, everybody in the world is going to have insurance and a new car. If we had that and it wouldn’t fund abortion, I still wouldn’t vote for it, » Paul continued.
When asked if he could vote for a reconciliation bill that only defunded Planned Parenthood and stopped Obamacare’s funding of abortion (but didn’t otherwise touch Obamacare), Paul said he did not think he could. « Just telling me the bill won’t have spending on abortion, and I don’t agree with the spending to begin with, it isn’t enough to get me on board with it, » Paul said.
There are only 50 Republicans (including Paul) in the Senate opposed to Planned Parenthood’s funding, and Paul argued that in order for Graham-Cassidy to pass the language defunding Planned Parenthood would have to be taken out. That’s likely true, so long as Paul or any other pro-life senator opposes the bill. Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski voted for an Obamacare repeal bill that defunded Planned Parenthood in 2015, but she said in June of this year she’s » committed » to keeping it. Susan Collins has also opposed defunding Planned Parenthood in the past.
Paul spoke positively about the 2015 bill—known as » repeal and delay « —which wouldn’t alter Obamacare’s regulations but would set a two-year expiration date for the law’s subsidies (with the idea that Congress would pass a replacement plan before hitting that deadline). Paul faced criticism from some conservatives for vacillating between insisting on « repeal and delay » and demanding that Congress « repeal and replace » the law at the same time.
Paul’s opposition will make Graham-Cassidy’s passage tougher, but the bill got a boost on Monday when Arizona governor Doug Ducey endorsed it. Arizona senator John McCain, who along with Alaska’s Murkowski and Maine’s Collins killed the Obamacare « skinny repeal » bill in July, has said Ducey’s support for an Obamacare repeal bill would be a big factor getting him to vote for it.
While time is running out before the Senate’s Sept, 30 deadline to pass a reconciliation bill, Paul said he’s increasingly worried that the Graham-Cassidy bill will pass. « Two weeks ago I was at zero, » Paul said of Graham-Cassidy’s odds of passing, « but now I’m worried. There’s a big groundswell of people pushing for this. »
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