Cruz, Paul want to go ‘nuclear’ on Obamacare repealConservative GOP Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul are pushing to test the limits of how much of Obamacare can be repealed under Senate rules, setting up a potential “nuclear” showdown.
The firebrands want to overturn long-standing precedent for what can be done under reconciliation, the fast-track budget process the GOP is using to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.
They argue Republicans are allowing stale Senate norms to tie their hands and are forfeiting a chance to completely abolish the law.
The key factor in allowing reconciliation to proceed is whether each provision in the bill has a direct impact on the budget — a question typically put to the Senate parliamentarian, a nonpartisan staffer named Elizabeth MacDonough.
But Cruz, of Texas, and Paul, of Kentucky argue that it is up to whoever is presiding over the Senate at the time, which can be Vice President Mike Pence as president of the Senate. Under their argument, Pence could make the call about whether certain parts of Obamacare can be scrapped or whether new policy, such as allowing insurers to sell across states lines, can be enacted — and he would presumably be more aggressive than MacDonough.
.......The potential intraparty conflict could isolate Paul and Cruz, the latter of whom — to the surprise of some colleagues — is working with other Republicans on a repeal plan as part of a 13-member working group. Any parliamentary conflict would presumably come to the fore only after a bill is written and has enough GOP support for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring it to the floor.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, said the rules are in law — so they can’t be easily overruled.
“We’re not at liberty to do that,” he said. “We can’t just change a law that way.”
Even Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a frequent ally of Paul and Cruz, isn’t on board. “Sen. Lee is against it,” his spokesman Conn Carroll said.
Cruz says the strong Democratic opposition to the GOP health care plan, including policies Republicans want to implement in regulatory and legislative “buckets” down the road, should encourage Republicans to be expansive in their use of reconciliation. Republicans would need at least eight Democratic votes for any health care provisions that aren’t included in reconciliation. So far, Democrats have shown no interest in helping Republicans implement their health care plans.
“We’re not getting eight Democrats on anything,” Cruz said. “And so what I’ve been urging for the past several months is take everything in bucket three and everything in bucket two and put it in bucket one. That the only thing passing is reconciliation.”................
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/16/obamacare-cruz-paul-repeal-238411
