Schumer puts GOP on notice over ObamaCare repeal

[mystery-ak]

Schumer puts GOP on notice over ObamaCare repeal
By Alexander Bolton - 01/15/17 05:11 PM EST

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has made it crystal clear: If Republicans repeal ObamaCare without immediately implementing a plan to replace it, Democrats will not help them out of a pickle down the road.   

Senate Democratic sources familiar with Schumer’s thinking say he will not engage in any negotiations to pass a watered-down version of the landmark healthcare reform law if Republicans unilaterally force its repeal first under special budgetary rules.

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http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/314317-schumer-puts-gop-on-notice-over-obamacare-repeal

[corbe]

Schumer puts GOP on notice over ObamaCare repeal

 By Alexander Bolton - 01/15/17 05:11 PM EST   3,085comments

(D-N.Y.) has made it crystal clear: If Republicans repeal ObamaCare without immediately implementing a plan to replace it, Democrats will not help them out of a pickle down the road.   

Senate Democratic sources familiar with Schumer’s thinking say he will not engage in any negotiations to pass a watered-down version of the landmark healthcare reform law if Republicans unilaterally force its repeal first under special budgetary rules.

“That’s not a close call. They’re doing something so extraordinary reckless. You cannot reward hostage taking,” a Democratic senator said.

The Democratic senator said Republicans have refused to work with President Obama for six years to come up with fixes to improve the law because they wanted to heighten its unpopularity and score political points.

Now, even if the GOP can secure a repeal through the budget reconciliation process – which requires only a majority – they’ll need support from at least eight Democrats to hit the 60 votes needed to pass repeal legislation.

The senator said Schumer’s view and the prevailing view in the Democratic Caucus is that they should not lift a finger to help Republicans out of a political mess if they repeal the healthcare reform law without having a replacement ready to avert severe market disruptions.

“If they want to rip healthcare away from 22 million Americans, they don’t get to blame us for not cobbling something back together,” the lawmaker said.

Schumer believes Republicans will inflict a massive political wound on themselves if they repeal ObamaCare’s most popular provisions – such as the ban on insurance companies discriminating against people with preexisting conditions and the Medicaid expansion – and fail to come up with adequate alternatives.

Schumer told colleagues on the Senate floor Wednesday evening that Democrats would work with Republicans to improve the Affordable Care Act or even pass a comprehensive reform bill replacing it – under certain conditions.

“So long as it covers as many people as the ACA, so long as it helps bring healthcare costs down, so long as it doesn’t move our healthcare system backward,” he said.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) acknowledged at a press conference after Election Day that Republicans will need Democratic support to enact legislation replacing ObamaCare.

“What the American people are looking for is results. And to get results in the Senate, as all of you know, it requires some Democratic participation and cooperation,” McConnell said one day after the election.

But Democrats are warning that if McConnell wants to replace ObamaCare, he needs to negotiate with them now — not after a one-sided repeal effort is over.

“They are using an inherently partisan process in my view to get an ideological trophy,” Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee, said of Republican efforts to use the budget process to repeal ObamaCare.

Wyden said he would not participate in the Republican effort to overhaul the nation’s healthcare sector as it’s now planned.

“People are going to get hurt,” he said. “If they want to set this whole thing aside, the partisan agenda that is about capturing their ideological trophy from the campaign trail and talk about ways to approve it, I’ve always been clear [about supporting] that.

“That’s why I’m not going to say, ‘Fine, repeal it, we’ll look at something that may happen down the road,’” he added.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Hillary Clinton’s running mate, spoke for most of his Democratic colleagues when he said, “The time for negotiation is now.”

The Senate Republican Caucus is now in state of heightened anxiety over the possibility they may be headed into what Sen. Bob Corker (R-Texas) calls a “box canyon,” or a dead end.


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http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/314317-schumer-puts-gop-on-notice-over-obamacare-repeal

[dfwgator]

As if we need their help.

[mountaineer]

Does this nitwit ever shut up?

[corbe]

   We can only hope between now and the showdown, somehow McConnell can aquire a spine.

[bilo]

   We can only hope between now and the showdown, somehow McConnell can aquire a spine.

You're right.

All the talk about needing a replacement plan right away plays into the Rats goal of making repeal impossible, no matter what is proposed to replace obamacare it will be insufficient in the Rat's and media's view.

Repeal obamacare and then propose the replacement. If the Rats won't vote for it let the pressure mount on them, or just end the filibuster after a couple months of being reasonable.

[corbe]

  Schumer reminds me of the guy's that go 'all in', holding a pair of 2's.

[Hondo69]

It always seems odd to me that new Republican administration's are always tasked with cleaning up the Democrat's mess on their own.  It's like being forced to fix up Animal House once the party is finally over and everyone goes home.

The Democrats always say, "there you clean it up, we're not going to lift a finger".

I say flip it back around on them, tell them, "it's your mess, you help clean it up".  Otherwise you forfeit the right to complain and you forfeit the right to participate.  Either help or sit down and shut up.

[Formerly Once-Ler]

I smell rat defections. 

[MajorClay]

I'm sure that they are shaking in their boots.