Senate Republicans have asked for a delay in the vote on the Senate’s health care bill, till the lawmakers come back from their July 4 break.
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate Majority Leader, said that he has high hopes of “getting at least 50 people in a comfortable place,” regarding the bill.
“We’re going to continue the discussions within our conference on the differences that we have, that we’ll continue to try to litigate,” he told reporters after quite a lengthy discussion with Senate GOP conference.
When asked by a reporter if the delay simply meant the bill was dead, McConnell replied, “No, no.”
“This is a very complicated subject,” he said. “Legislation of this complexity almost always takes longer than anybody else would hope. But we’re going to press on. … We’re optimistic we’re going to get to a result that’s better than the status quo.”
McConnell also told reporters that Republicans have been invited to the White House to discuss their strategies moving on.
On the other hand, Democrats say that efforts to defeat Republicans’ moves to replace and repeal Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) are nowhere near over.
“The Republicans cannot excise the rotten core at the center of their health care bill, no matter what tweaks they may add in the next week and a half,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters. “If our Republican colleagues stick to this base bill … we’re going to fight the bill tooth and nail, and we have a darn good chance of defeating it – a week from now, a month from now, a year from now.”
The delay in voting came after Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah.) indicated that he would not approve to move ahead with the debate of the new bill. However, a spokesman for Lee has suggested that the lawmaker has not ruled out voting for the final version of the bill if certain changes are made.
