McCain: Nixing Medicaid Expansion Will ‘Trouble Me’ But I’ll Back O-care Repeal

FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2015, file photo, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. McCain has announced he will run for re-election in 2016. The Arizona Repu... FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2015, file photo, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. McCain has announced he will run for re-election in 2016. The Arizona Republican made the announcement to run for a sixth term on Monday, April 6, 2015. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) MORE LESS
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Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said on Wednesday morning that even though he is “reluctant” to undo Medicaid expansion in Arizona, he will ultimately vote for the Senate bill to repeal Obamacare.

The senator made the comments at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington, D.C., when he was asked if he had any reservations about the Obamacare repeal bill’s inclusion of a measure to end the law’s Medicaid expansion. The Arizona government expanded Medicaid in the state through the Affordable Care Act.

“It’s going to trouble me in the vote,” McCain said. “It does provide me with discomfort. I am very reluctant to take positions counter to the decision made by the governor.”

McCain also addressed Donald Trump’s status as the frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary on Wednesday. The senator said that he will support the Republican nominee, even if voters select Trump, noting that he has disagreements with numerous candidates in the field.

“I’m a loyal Republican. I believe my best efforts have been devoted to making the Republican party the party of Reagan and Lincoln,” he said. “I will support the nominee of the Republican party.”

But he said that there’s some “concern” by Republicans that efforts to derail Trump’s 2016 bid have failed. He noted that a focus group of Trump supporters conducted by Fox News’ Frank Luntz found that no stance taken by Trump will dissuade his supporters from backing the real estate mogul.

“That’s a very interesting phenomenon, and I don’t think we’ve seen anything quite like that, certainly not in my political lifetime,” McCain said.

He said that candidates like Trump and Ben Carson are tapping into the American people’s “anger and frustration.”

“A lot of it has to do with, you can go back to 2010 when the Tea Party became a real factor, at least in certain segments of the American political landscape. It’s a reflection of the frustration and anger that people feel, and a lot of that I think is bred by a poor economy,” he said. “A lot of it is justified because they have not seen a betterment of their lives.”

McCain added that, “some of this appeals to the bad angels of our nature, rather than the better angels of our nature,” evoking Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address.

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