Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s budget director, suggested Friday that senators are continuing their efforts on healthcare, despite a failed vote to repeal a handful of portions of Obamacare in the early morning hours on Friday.
“We have not given up,” Mulvaney said on CNBC. “We understand that various senators continue to talk to each other and to the White House. I don’t think they can go home without doing something. The healthcare discussion is still very much alive despite the vote last night.” The vote failed after all 48 Democrats and three Republicans voted against it.
GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John McCain of Arizona voted against the repeal bill, saying it was time to work with Democrats on a solution. McCain’s vote put the bill’s fate over the edge, as Republicans could afford to lose no more than two votes for their reconciliation bill.
Released two hours before the Senate vote, the bill was formally known as the Health Care Freedom Act but dubbed a “skinny repeal” of Obamacare, because it merely made a few modifications to the law such as repealing the individual and employer mandates. Still, a Congressional Budget Office analysis projected that by 2018 premiums would rise by 20 percent and that 16 million more people would be uninsured. Because of these projections, several senators raised concerns about the bill becoming law in its current form rather than being hashed out in conference.
Though most were won over, McCain said he remained unsatisfied that the bill as presented wouldn’t become law.
Mulvaney acknowledged that the outcome was disappointing to the administration.
“I know we’re disappointed because Obamacare is still hurting people and it’s still the law of the land … it’s a disappointing day, there’s no other way to look at it,” he said.
Mulvaney said that lawmakers needed to find a bill they could pass, but he didn’t specify whether that meant working with Democrats to improve Obamacare or whether it meant continuing efforts to repeal the law.
The administration was hoping to tee up a healthcare reconciliation bill to make way for tax reform, another item on Trump’s agenda. On Friday several leaders in Congress urged the Senate to continue its Obamacare repeal effort, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaking on the Senate floor Friday, indicated he was finished with the healthcare effort after months of negotiations.
“It’s time to move on,” he said.
