Page 88 - Murkowski News Today

Reading the wind and weather and most of them went into the hearing knowing it is dead before the hearing took place. an enthen they walked out thinking, man, thats really dead. so, look. you see whats happening here. the whole thing is just unraveling at this point. not only hard noses that we have and not sure rand paul is a hard no but ted cruz, mike lee out there and murkowski, probably really ten, 12 republican senators who are really not fully for the bill, hard noes or maybe no. given the...

And the republicans and what they witnessed today in that room is most powerful message they have received on this. >> i cant imagine thats not true. as you said, not only nobody arrested in the history of the committee and dont see it at the senate finance committee and not all brilliant men and women, not all -- >> you talking about the members of the finance committee? not all? >> not all. >> okay. ill accept that. >> but it is a savvy committee. >> it is. >> for republican members if they ha...

Same. they are trying to defend the indefensible which is making so many americans pay more to get less coverage. >> as you describe it, those are sweeteners given to holdouts, murkowski and collins. do you think that will help tip them over into the "yes" column? >> i hope not. i mean, this whole idea of trying to pass a health care bill which is about holding down premiums and protecting our people and turning it into a park parade where you just give out huge slabs of pork in order to try to ...

Makes it easr for states to charge higher rates to sicker people, to cut out essential benefits that we heard a lot about in this debate. those are changes trying to change over rand paul who is a no or ted cruz said hes not quite there on the bill. i look at this as an attempt to bring on those who suppressed reservations. we will see the next week whether it is successful. >> gregory, heres our visual representation of those who have reservations. heres our graphic. and you see it is six peopl...

Of this bill including the white house. >> and as we know, the republicans cant afford to lose one more vote. as you mentioned, they have sweetened this deal for certain senators such as senator murkowski and does she still appear to be in the no category? >> shes keeping close counsel. were not sure. just in speaking to her, and on seeing her public remarks after the failure of the first republican bill that went down because she and two others voted no, some of her concerns are still in there....

>> graham-cassidy remains in grave condition. even if it would spend more on states like alaska and maine, the hometown senators are not sold. >> its hard for me to envision getting to yes on this bill because my concerns are so fundamental. >> while there is attention trying to win over moderate senators like collins and murkowski, aides to a leading conservative voice say he is a "no." >> they dont have my vote and i dont think they have mike lee either. i want to be a "yes." i want to get the...

Especially if health care goes down. can the president stay patient? thats where aides are worried right now and thats why theyre saying, guys, just let it all happen. >> best-laid plans. >> ill be paying very close attention to local media in alaska, the papers, radio, tv. as we know, senator murkowski is in her home state this weekend and im told shes meeting with some constituents. and this is really, really critical, because remember that last time when she went home after voting no, she tol...

That means there are two no votes. senator mccain and senator rand paul who have been against it for some time. the republicans can only afford to lose two votes. weve seen interviews on the sunday shows so far where senator collins and senator murkowski are looking pretty negative. so it feels like a long shot, but then again a deadline could be quite motivating. i would not rule it out until we get past the september 30 deadline. >> collins is coming up on state of the union an hour from now. ...

Theres a national conversation around this, i want to make sure that people dont take theyre eye off the health care ball. that is a particularly radical bill and the more america pays attention to it and tunes in, the more they reject it. weve seen that happen twice now and i worry on the third one were going to miss the ball. >> and right now the votes they really dont have those, ted cruz has come out against it, the regular players of murkowski, also collins, rand paul is not for it. we know...

Too many people would stand to lose pre-existing conditions. too many people would be pushed off medicaid. they dont like the block grant formula proposed in this bill to give states money to do with as they will to keep those expanded medicaid programs going under the aaffordable care act. republican leaders seem to be willing to push ahead. the question, will they put this bill on the floor and roll the dice even though it appears they wont be successful at this point. that decision has to com...