McCain: GOP health care bill probably going to be dead

Arizona Senator John McCain became the latest Republican senator on Sunday to voice concerns over the passage of the GOP health care bill.

Speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation, McCain predicted the bill’s failure this week, saying, “I think my view is it’s probably going to be dead.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had hoped to pass the Senate version of a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare before the Fourth of July recess, but those efforts collapsed as more and more Republicans voiced concerns and opposition to the bill.

McConnell needs at least 50 of the 52 GOP senators to vote yes or witness the mortifying crumpling of his party’s high-decibel pledge to uproot former President Barack Obama’s health care law.

McConnell has been calibrating changes that might win over worried Republicans, but there’s no sign he’s made progress. Revisions under consideration would lessen the bill’s Medicaid cuts, boost spending for programs combatting drug abuse, fatten health care subsidies for low-income earners and make it easier for insurers to sell skimpier, lower-cost policies.

“I fear that it’s going to fail,” McCain told moderator John Dickerson. “And then we should convene a Republican conference, say, ‘What are we going to do?’ Introduce a bill. Say to the Democrats, ‘Here’s a bill.’ It doesn’t mean they don’t, that they control it. It means they can have amendments considered. And even when they lose, then they’re part of the process. That’s what democracy is supposed to be all about.”

McConnell and a handful of other Republican senators worked behind closed doors to write a Senate version to a House bill that passed earlier this year. But McCain said he would prefer to scrap the whole bill and start from the beginning with some Democratic support to get at least 60 votes to avoid a Democratic filibuster.

“Introduce a bill, move it through, bring it to the floor, vote on it. That’s the normal process,” McCain said. “If you shut out the adversary or the opposite party, you’re going to end up the same way Obamacare did when they rammed it through with 60 votes. Only guess what? We don’t have 60 votes.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report 

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