Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) joined the small but growing chorus of Republicans declaring their discomfort with the current GOP plan of repealing Obamacare in the weeks to come without a replacement.
“Repeal and replacement should take place simultaneously,” Corker said Friday, according to Bloomberg News.
Three other senators have publicly said they would like to repeal Obamacare with some sort of replacement ready, putting the margin Republicans will need to pass a repeal-only bill in the upper chamber in danger. With the GOP holding only 52 seats in the Senate, and Democrats unified in their opposition to repeal, Republicans can afford to lose only a few votes in their repeal effort.
This week, both Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rand Paul (R-KY) expressed their objections to the repeal-only approach, while Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has been skeptical of the approach since early on, and even voted against the 2015 “test run” legislation that repealed Obamacare but was voted by President Obama.
Corker is looking at a primary challenge, so this could be interesting…
Apparently Corker reads polls. One of the big bites the Republicans are proposing immediately has to do with medicaid. A lot of Red states are going to be hit hard if medicaid money is cut back. Hell nursing homes might put a lot of middle class grandmas out on the street if medicaid funding is cut.
What about McCain and Rubio? They’re both safe from retribution and are Senators from states that have a lot of retirees-
There’s not much doubt in my mind that the Senators who are “expressing doubts” are ones who’ve been contacted by the heads of hospitals in their areas as well as the health insurance lobby not to mention Big Pharma. These Red state Senators could give a sh*t about their residents but they do respond to pressure from forces that can provide funding and support for their causes.
Either that or throw away $350 BILLION of taxpayer money…keep trying Bob.