The votes

[PriddyBoy]

Here’s how members of Senate voted on the “Skinny Repeal” bill:

NO (51 VOTES)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Michael Bennet (D-CO)
Richard Bluementhal (D-CT)
Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Thomas Carper (D-DE)
Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-PA)
Christopher Coons (D-DE)
Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV)
Joe Donnelly (D-IN)
Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)
Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Al Franken (D-MN)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Kamala Harris (D-CA)
Maggie Hassan (D-NH)
Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)
Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
Timothy Kaine (D-VA)
Angus King (I-ME)
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Joe Manchin III (D-WV)
Edward Markey (D-MA)
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Chris Murphy (D-CT)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Gary Peters (D-MI)
Jack Reed (D-RI)
Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Brian Schatz (D-HI)
Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Jon Tester (D-MT)
Tom Udall (D-NM)
Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
Mark Warner (D-VA)
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)

YES (49 VOTES)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Luther Strange (R-AL)
Dan Sullivan (R-AK)
Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
John Boozman (R-AR)
Tom Cotton (R-AR)
Cory Gardner (R-CO)
Marco Rubio (R-FL)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
David Perdue (R-GA)
Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Jim Risch (R-ID)
Todd Young (R-IN)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Joni Ernst (R-IA)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Jerry Moran (R-KS)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Rand Paul (R-KY)
Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
John N. Kennedy (R-LA)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Roger Wicker (R-MS)
Roy Blunt (R-MO)
Steve Daines (R-MT)
Deb Fischer (R-NE)
Ben Sasse (R-NE)
Dean Heller (R-NV)
Richard Burr (R-NC)
Thom Tillis (R-NC)
John Hoeven (R-ND)
Rob Portman (R-OH)
Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
Jame Lankford (R-OK)
Pat Toomey (R-PA)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Tim Scott (R-SC)
John Thune (R-SD)
Mike Rounds (R-SD)
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Bob Corker (R-TN)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Mike Lee (R-UT)
Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)
Ron Johnson (R-WI)
Mike Enzi (R-WY)
John Barrasso (R-WY)

 

[WVU82]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/...partial-repeal-senate-republicans-revolt.html

the skinny...

The new, eight-page Senate bill, called the Health Care Freedom Act, was unveiled just hours before the vote. It would have ended the requirement that most people have health coverage, known as the individual mandate. But it would not have put in place other incentives for people to obtain coverage — a situation that insurers say would leave them with a pool of sicker, costlier customers. It would also have ended the requirement that large employers offer coverage to their workers.

The “skinny repeal” would have delayed a tax on medical devices. It would also have cut off federal funds for Planned Parenthood for one year and increased federal grants to community health centers. And it would have increased the limit on contributions to tax-favored health savings accounts.

In addition, the bill would have made it much easier for states to waive federal requirements that health insurance plans provide consumers with a minimum set of benefits like maternity care and prescription drugs. It would have eliminated funds provided by the Affordable Care Act for a wide range of prevention and public health programs.


Mr. McCain and Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin insisted that House leaders promise that the bill would not be enacted.

“I’m not going to vote for a bill that is terrible policy and horrible politics just because we have to get something done,” Mr. Graham said at a news conference, calling the stripped-down bill a “disaster” and a “fraud” as a replacement for the health law.

Mr. Graham eventually voted for the bill after receiving an assurance from the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, that the two chambers would negotiate their differences if the Senate passed the legislation.

“If moving forward requires a conference committee, that is something the House is willing to do,” Mr. Ryan said in a statement. “The reality, however, is that repealing and replacing Obamacare still ultimately requires the Senate to produce 51 votes for an actual plan.”

But Mr. Ryan left open the possibility that if a compromise measure had failed in the Senate, the House could still pass the stripped-down Senate health bill. That helped push Mr. McCain to “no.”

Republican senators found themselves in the strange position of hoping their bill would never be approved by the House.

“It may very well be a good vehicle to get us into conference, but you got to make sure that it’s not so good that the House simply passes it rather than going to conference,” said Senator Michael Rounds, Republican of South Dakota. Mr. Rounds, who built a successful insurance business in his home state, said he was concerned that “the markets may collapse” if the Senate bill ever took effect.

Two influential House conservatives made clear that they did not want to simply pass the Senate bill. Representative Mark Walker, Republican of North Carolina and the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said he favored a conference, calling the bill “ugly to the bone.”

And Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina and the chairman of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, said that for many conservatives, it would be a “nonstarter” to send President Trump a bill that has “gotten so skinny that it doesn’t resemble a repeal.”

But senators had at least some reason to be nervous. The House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy of California, notified House members that “pending Senate action on health care,” the House schedule could change, and that “all members should remain flexible in their travel plans over the next few days.” That did not sound like a man preparing for protracted House-Senate negotiations.

Representative Chris Collins, Republican of New York and a key ally of Mr. Trump, said the stripped-down bill would be “better than nothing” if it became apparent that the Senate did not have the votes for a more ambitious bill.

“It becomes a binary choice,” he said. “If it’s this or nothing, who wants to go home and say I did nothing?”

“No one can guarantee anything,” he added, sending a message to senators wanting assurances.

Even some senators who voted for the bill Friday conceded that its enactment could have been disastrous. It would have repealed the mandate that most Americans have insurance, without another mechanism to push Americans to maintain insurance coverage. Under those circumstances, healthy people could wait to buy insurance until they are sick. The insurance markets would become dominated by the chronically ill, and premiums would soar, insurers warned.

America’s Health Insurance Plans, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and the American Medical Association all expressed similar concerns.

“We would oppose an approach that eliminates the individual coverage requirement, does not offer alternative continuous coverage solutions, and does not include measures to immediately stabilize the individual market,” said America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group for the industry.

On the other side, the Trump administration twisted arms. Mr. Trump directed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to call Ms. Murkowski, the Alaska senator, to remind her of issues affecting her state that are controlled by the Interior Department, according to people familiar with the call, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Ms. Murkowski confirmed to reporters that she had received a call from Mr. Zinke, but she declined to describe the details. However, people familiar with the call described her reaction to it as “furious.”