Page 100 - Murkowski News Today

Knowing where the caucus stands ask then returning to it later. i know theres a school of thought that mcconnell just wants to show the body, get the vote over with and if the republicans lose, hes ready to move on. im not so sure thats the case. the republicans are looking for a legislative victory and there is so much momentum on trying to get something done on health care that if theyre close enough, there may well be another vote later on, even if they dont have the votes right now. >> so, f...

Colleagues with his notes. he says he wants there to be more flexibility to buy and sell insurance across state lines, some more want more obamacare repeal. theres more question marks. might be higher than five in the republican party against this. portman has been on report as pushing for more money to combat the opioid epidemic. collins and murkowski say they dont want cuts to planned parenthood which this senate draft has a lot of. when people talk about tweaks to the bill to get it through, ...

They passed the bill. but heres what i would say about this. this bill is devastating for states that have done the medicaid expansion -- ohio, nevada, west virginia. its really critical that as we go into this weekend, people explain to their senators in those states how devastating this would be for their states. and i will say republican governors, kasich and sandoval in ohio and nevada respectively are putting real pressure on their republican senators. all we need is three votes. i agree th...

>> i do see this bill as obamacare light essentially. one of the things we know about this bill is its rolling back a lot of plans from obamacare, not entirely, but making them less generous. were expecting less individual tax credits who buy in the individual market, medicaid expansion being phased out in 2021. well see if this bill can thread the need to a peas people like mike lee from utah, ted cruz from texas and more moderate senators, people like lisa murkowski from alaska, susan collins ...

>> are you democrats in that case preparing some sort of rapid response team to react to this? whats your plan once its unveiled today? >> yes, we are all in. our big job as i just indicated, is to actually make clear what this means for peoples lives. for example, tomorrow a number of democratic senators are going to have a day of action in their home states. were going to do it on the floor of the united states senate. were talking to provider groups, particularly those in places like rural am...

Again, its going to go away. >> shepard: we talk about the four senators that are republicans that already said that theyre no votes as the bill is written. theyre open to compromise. theres two more. susan collins and lisa murkowski that are up said about planned parent hood and medicaid. theyre not for sure yesterday, are they? >> right. theyre on the other end. >> shepard: the more moderates. >> yeah. theyre conservative. they think this is obamacare light. they want it to be a full repeal. y...

Than in the house version, but the cuts to the medicaid program are actually deeper. the federal subsidies tied to income, not age. as was proposed in the house bill, but the eligibility threshold will be lower. another example of giving something to moderates but giving something else to conservatives as well. planned parenthood defunded for one year. this, of course, is a very big issue for someone like a senate collins or murkowski. >> possibly a deal breaker? >> the big question. is it going...

And that somehow or another this is going to -- >> well, philosophical debate, that is -- thats rand paul to a t. >> rand paul what is interesting about the senate bill, senate proposa proposal, what you read over the last week or two is that rand paul was probably going to be a no -- >> very little he could do. >> what the senate is trying to do here i think is appeal more to the moderates right now. trying to keep -- see if they can get colin, murkowski, they got the planned parenthood problem...

>> understatement. senator. theres a lot of talk about how this bill is going to essentially try to circumvent senator collins and senator paul, if theyre able to do that, they dont need those two senators, mike pence can break a tie, if they lose senator murkowski, theyre not going to be able to pass this bill. if all eyes are potentially on murkowski right now. are the democrats talking to her behind the scenes? are you talking to her behind the scenes to fry to convince her not to go along wi...

With "the new york times." so they can only afford to lose two votes. we understand theres two women, especially, murkowski of alaska and collins of maine. im sure different points of the map there who are having a problem with this. we also hear theres two conservatives, mike lee of utah and rand paul of kentucky, ready to vote against it too, too. how do they get 50? whats mcconnell up to except getting this behind him, even if it means losing? getting it over with? >> he wants to go on with s...