Republicans eye billions in side deals to win Obamacare repeal votes

It’s nice to finally have evidence that their a large number of legislators on both sides of the aisle who lack principles.

 

Was the money donated to their PACs to be used to be proved they are  scum the same as the progressive Democrats, who passed Obama’s Health Care Rationing Plan in the dead of night while dancing in the dark, without a single Republican vote.

For their part many in congress from the GOP are making similar deals proving Republicans appear to be ready to use to accomplish their objectives?

Hardly, and that’s the reason to not donate your hard-earned money to PACs but give it to the candidates you want to support.

The White House and Senate GOP leaders have nearly $200 billion in savings to divvy up among senators’ priorities to secure votes for the imperiled bill.

 

 

Politico

By Josh Dawsey and Burgess Everett

July 16, 2017

White House and Capitol Hill officials are exploring potential deals to divvy up billions of dollars to each senator’ priorities in a wide-ranging bid to secure votes for the imperiled GOP health care bill.

A Congressional Budget Office score that projected 22 million fewer Americans would have insurance under the plan sent some members fleeing Monday and left the bill in jeopardy of failing to have enough votes to even be called to the Senate floor this week.

Of course, it would, they are more concerned with maintaining their grasp on personal power and perks than they would ordinarily be concerned about the constituents.

But Republicans in the White House and in Congress were pleasantly surprised that the bill included more savings than they expected, and are trying to figure out if they can dole it out for votes.

The Senate has about $188 billion to play with.

 

Among the possible changes: More spending for health savings accounts to appease conservatives such as Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee, according to three people familiar with the matter, and some additional Medicaid and opioid spending for moderates.

“We are still working with leadership to change the base bill,” a Lee aide said.

Lee, Cruz and others on the right have looked to wipe out as much of Obamacare as possible and replace it with health savings accounts, group plans and selling insurance across state lines, among other ideas.

It’s not clear whether the Senate parliamentarian would allow all of those proposals through under strict reconciliation rules.

And Lee will likely require far more dramatic changes to be won over.

See the entire article below.

 

Meanwhile, senators from Medicaid expansion states huddled after the CBO score revealed the nearly $200 billion in savings to see whether they could get GOP leaders to put more money into Medicaid and to thwart drug addiction.

Those changes might take place on the Senate floor, but Republicans are divided on how to use the money.

Negotiations are likely to continue quickly behind the scenes over the next 24 hours and could draw the ire of good government groups and advocates. Republicans hammered Democrats for supposedly crafting Obamacare in secret seven years ago and for handing out goodies to wavering Democratic senators.

But the GOP bill has been roundly criticized for being negotiated and written in secret, and the final terms are leaving even some Republicans queasy.

One Senate aide said that Tuesday would be “all about side deals,” and another person familiar with the discussions said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had already begun talking about private deals.

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