McConnell: ‘I Don’t Know How We Get To 50’ Senate Votes To Pass ACA Repeal

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., talks to reporters before the vote to confirm President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, April 7, 2017. The Republican majority changed Senate rules to lower the vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees from 60 votes to a simple majority to counter Democratic resistance. McConnell also supported Trump's airstrike on Syria. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., talks to reporters before the vote to confirm President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, April 7, 2017. The Repu... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., talks to reporters before the vote to confirm President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, April 7, 2017. The Republican majority changed Senate rules to lower the vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees from 60 votes to a simple majority to counter Democratic resistance. McConnell also supported Trump's airstrike on Syria. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Wednesday said he doesn’t know how Republicans will muster enough votes to get their bill repealing and replacing Obamacare through the Senate.

“I don’t know how we get to 50 at the moment,” McConnell said in an interview with Reuters. “But that’s the goal.”

He said there was “not a whole lot of news to be made on health care” and did not offer a timetable for passage of the Republican health care bill.

McConnell told Reuters that tax legislation would be less “challenging” to get through Congress than the legislation to repeal Obamacare, and said he does not plan to work with congressional Democrats to advance his legislative agenda.

It took congressional Republicans two tries to get the repeal bill through the House. They pulled the first iteration of the bill after failing to muster the votes to pass it, amid defections from hardline conservatives and moderate Republicans, and narrowly passed the second iteration despite unified opposition from Democratic members.

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