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Sen. Rand Paul.

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Jim Newell is a Slate staff writer.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is just as shocked as you are.

I had thought that it was completely dead, gone, buried, and there wasnt going to be any more attempts," the senator told reporters in his office Monday afternoon, referring to Senate Republicans efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. Im kind of surprised that this has been resurrected cause I dont think its been fully thought through.

Paul said that two weeks ago, he would have given the Graham-Cassidy bill a zero percent chance of passing the Senate, but now hes worried. He doesnt even have to go back two weeks. He told me last Tuesday that he gave it a zero percent chance. That seemed like an accurate assessment at the time, before the Republicans' rousing pep rally during last Thursdays caucus lunch.

But the pep talk has not moved Paul. And from the sound of him Monday afternoon, it wont. If that holds, it could spell Graham-Cassidys end.

Paul describes the bill, which replaces Obamacare's subsidies and Medicaid expansion with block grants to states for their own experimentation, as one that keeps 90 percent of Obamacare and redistributes the proceeds. He calls it just a game of Republicans sticking it to Democrats.

It just looks like the Republicans are taking the money from the Democrat states and giving it to the Republican states, he said Monday. He observed, too, that if Graham-Cassidy were to become law, Democrats could later adjust the formula used to determine block grant amounts to favor blue states. So were going to go through year after year of Republicans fighting Democrats over the formula?

Paul represents a mostly red state, but a relatively unique one in the health care wars, which could explain his thinking. During Obamacares implementation, Kentucky happened to have a term-limited Democratic governor who embraced all that the Affordable Care Act had to offer, and many Kentuckians gained coverage. Its not just blue states that would lose money under Graham-Cassidys block grant formula. Kentucky would, too.

If you didnt expand [Medicaid], you get a ton of money, Paul said about changes that would come under Graham-Cassidy. Mississippis going up 900 percent, North Dakota 600 percent. So theres a ton of money out there for non-expansion red states.

Paul is definitely one of the most difficult votes for Repulican leaders to secure here. The other two are Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. One of the three of them will need to support Graham-Cassidy for it to pass. (In addition to the other 49 senators, all of whom cant be considered sure things just yet.) But Collins and Murkowski have each objected to every single Republican repeal attempt so far, and this approach is arguably worse in both rushed process and policy. That would seem to put the pressure on Paul to get on board from the conservative end of the spectrum.

If so, he's not feeling that yet. Ive been a loud advocate for repeal of Obamacare, something that looks like repeal, he said. This does not look, smell, or even sound like repeal. This is a keep. This is Obamacare Lite.

Link:
Rand Paul could kill Graham-Cassidy. - slate.com

President Donald Trump and Senate GOP leaders are desperate for a show of legislative unity on tax reform after the collapse of Obamacare repeal.

But theyre unlikely to get it thanks to Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. The frequent GOP contrarian is digging in against the budget as written an ominous start to Republicans tax push at a time when leaders would like to soothe jittery donors and voters.

Story Continued Below

Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have been quietly working to get all Republicans on board with the GOP budget. Unanimity would give the party critical momentum after a brutal few months of intraparty fighting and send a clear message that all 52 members are in play on tax reform.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), whose defection along with Pauls helped doom the GOPs Obamacare repeal bill, was also wavering on the budget until Tuesday. But hes now willing to fall in line, soothed sufficiently that there will be a future boost in defense spending.

However, in part for those hawkish promises, Paul may be the sole GOP no vote on the budget just as he was on the GOPs January budget that led to the failure on Obamacare. And his fellow Republican senators are already slamming Paul for shattering any hoped-for harmony on tax reform.

This vote is about whether or not were going to lay the groundwork to cutting taxes to revive a stagnant economy. Its about the future of the Republican Party, griped Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) about Pauls potential no vote. How many times do you have to see this movie before you figure out whats going on here?

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Graham added, President Trump says Rand Pauls his friend. I dont think you can be a friend of the president or the conservative cause and vote against this budget resolution.

Paul offered his party an olive branch on Tuesday, voting to start debate on the budget even though GOP leaders expected a no vote, according to one Republican senator. Paul said Trump was influential in getting him to vote for the motion to proceed to the plan; the two spoke ahead of the vote.

And Paul says he can still be persuaded to get to yes, though leaders fear agreeing to his request to cut $43 billion in defense spending would lose the votes of military hawks like Graham and McCain.

The president wants a yes vote on the budget, said Paul, who golfed with Trump over the weekend one day after Graham did. I talked to him this morning. And I told him: Ill be a yes vote but youve got to tell the swamp up here that they cant just keep spending money left and right.

The budget should be relatively easy for the entire GOP to support, particularly with so much pressure to produce after the health care debacle. The budget is nonbinding and unlikely to affect later spending bills; instead it is essentially a procedural vote to trigger a tax reform attempt that can evade the Senates 60-vote threshold.

So the thinking goes in McConnells office and the White House that if the party really wants to do tax reform, everyone will vote to kick off the process.

I hope we can get everybody. But Rand may be a lost cause, said John Thune of South Dakota, No. 3 in the Senate GOP leadership. You would like to have everybody on board.

But if its just a symbolic vote, Paul asks, then why wont so-called Republican conservatives throw him a bone?

Every one of these people says it doesnt matter whats in the budget. But when push comes to shove and somebody wants to have something in the budget to make it mean something, then theyre opposed to it, Paul fumed.

Instead of solidarity, Paul is descending into a brutal fight with Graham and McCain over defense spending supplied by the budgets overseas contingency funds. He says McCain and Graham basically are not fiscally conservative and is accusing his party of increasing the debt a debate thats already clouding tax reform negotiations.

Graham traded barbs with Paul on Twitter, warning him: Dont screw up #TaxReform now. You already saved #Obamacare.

Paul responded by calling a media conference phone call and on-camera news conference in which he accused McCain and Graham of wanting unlimited defense spending. The message was clear: Barring a massive about-face, Paul is dead set against the bill as proposed.

McCain had to be convinced that a boost to defense spending will happen later this year to go along with the budget. Asked about Paul trying to roll that back, McCain dismissed his colleague entirely.

Ive had to worry about a lot of senators. Rand Pauls not one of them, McCain said with a chuckle.

But its less of a laughing matter for Senate leaders. Pauls influence over Trump is real; they speak frequently and play golf together. On health care, Pauls communications with Trump forced GOP leaders to abandon initial plans to repeal Obamacare with no replacement, setting the stage for a months-long comedy of errors that culminated in failure to repeal the law.

And Paul said he wants Trump to weigh in on the budget and get McConnell, McCain and Graham to back down on the $43 billion at issue.

The president would do it, but leadership here appears unwilling to do it, Paul said. We are trying to get the White House to put pressure on the Senate leadership to not be absolutely profligate spenders.

Despite his potential opposition to the budget, Paul says hes all in on tax cuts. But GOP leaders arent so sure. As Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas put it: A vote against the budget is a vote against tax reform.

I would love to get everybody together, said Cornyn, the partys chief vote counter. But that may or may not be possible.

Connor OBrien contributed to this report.

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Rand Paul wrecks GOP unity again - POLITICO

Sen. Rand Paul's tweets came after President Donald Trump singled him out when seeking to pressure GOP lawmakers via Twitter on Friday morning to back the bill. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Rand Paul, a definitive no on Senate Republicans last-ditch effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, wont be bribed or bullied into supporting the bill, the Kentucky Republican said Friday.

Calling a bill that KEEPS most of Obamacare repeal doesn't make it true. Thats what the swamp does, Paul tweeted. I won't be bribed or bullied.

Story Continued Below

Paul's tweets came after President Donald Trump singled him out in seeking to pressure GOP lawmakers via Twitter on Friday morning to back the bill.

Rand Paul, or whoever votes against Hcare Bill, will forever (future political campaigns) be known as the Republican who saved Obamacare, Trump warned.

Paul responded in kind, tweeting that no one is more opposed to Obamacare than I am but asserting, The current bill isnt repeal.

I wont vote for Obamacare Lite that keeps 90% of the taxes & spending just so some people can claim credit for something that didnt happen, Paul said.

Republicans have begun to rally behind legislation sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana that would block-grant federal health care funding to the states.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is expected to bring the bill to the floor next week for a vote ahead of a crucial Sept. 30 deadline that will allow Republicans to pass the measure by a simple majority. Its unclear, though, whether the legislation has the votes to pass.

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Originally posted here:
Rand Paul to Trump: 'I won't be bribed or bullied' into ...

JUDY WOODRUFF: And back to the battle over health care.

I spoke a short time ago with Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, one of the key votes that could determine the future of the GOP effort to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Senator Paul, thank you very much for joining us.

Is there any doubt in your mind, if the vote had gone ahead today or tomorrow, that the bill would have failed?

SEN. RAND PAUL, R-Ky.: Yes, I dont think there were enough votes, but I think there also just hasnt been enough time to have a full discussion.

We just got the bill last week. We just got the CBO score on Monday. So, there needs to be a little bit more time to absorb this, then also to discuss, what are the changes that the leadership might be open to in order to get it to pass?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, speaking of that, you met with President Trump at the White House earlier today. You tweeted after your meeting, you said: @realDonaldTrump is open to making the bill better. Is the Senate leadership?

My question to you is and the president is meeting now with the rest of the Republicans in the Senate what changes does the president want to see in this bill?

SEN. RAND PAUL: Well, I dont think its so much him lobbing us for changes. Its us asking him for help in getting the changes done.

I think he has the bully pulpit. He has a great deal of influence with the Republican Party on both the House and the Senate side. And I think the bill right now to the conservative point of view doesnt have enough repeal. In fact, it looks like were keeping a lot of Obamacare.

Even the architect of Obamacare, Jonathan Gruber, said, hey, hey, guys, dont worry, were actually keeping Obamacare. So we actually think that there needs to be more repeal. Thats the message I took to him.

But I also took a specific list that were sending to Senate leadership, and were saying, if you address these items, theres a possibility we could vote for this bill, but its got to look more like repeal and less like were keeping it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, as you know, what the president has said about the House version of the bill, which many people said was tougher than the Senate bill, he said it was mean, and he wanted a bill with more heart.

So where are we on this?

SEN. RAND PAUL: You know, I think there are various ways you can characterize both Republican and Democrat proposals.

President Obama, I think, wanted what was best for the country, but I think it didnt work well. I think we have the death spiral, and I think particularly premiums in the individual market are going through the roof.

I think Republicans want whats best for the country also, but I think theyre not fixing the death spiral of Obamacare. Theyre going to subsidize it with a lot of taxpayer money. So, characterizing something as mean or generous I think goes to peoples motives, and I think it is sort of why we have such an angry country now. We think that people have ill motives.

But I think Republicans want people to have health insurance. We want people to be healthy. So do Democrats. We just believe in a different type of economic system or different types of limitations of government or more expansive government and how we can do it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: One of the things, Senator Paul, you have talked about wanting to do away with is the Obamacare tax on individuals making over $250,000 a year.

That would be money thats the money thats been used to pay for many of the subsidies for people with lower income.

SEN. RAND PAUL: Right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Its a transfer, taking money away from those who have more to give it to people who have less, but that troubles you?

SEN. RAND PAUL: No, we already do quite a bit of that, and its call Medicaid.

The problem or the fundamental flaw of Obamacare was that they put regulations on the insurance, about 12 regulations, which increased the cost of the insurance. And so President Obama wanted to help poor, working-class people, but he actually hurts them by making the insurance too expensive to want to buy.

I had someone at the house just recently was doing some work, and he said: Oh, my son doesnt have insurance, hes paying the penalty because its too expensive.

So, President Obama said, oh, we want to make insurance perfect for people, but he added all these regulatory mandates, made it too expensive. Young, healthy people didnt buy it, and the people remaining in the insurance pool were sicker and sicker. Thats the adverse selection and the death spiral of Obamacare.

And so really we do need to discuss the intricacies of what worked and what didnt work in Obamacare. And I think the better way to do this is to let individuals have the freedom to choose what kind of insurance is best for them. The government doesnt always know best. Maybe the individual should be allowed to choose.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Senator, I hear you, and I have read of some of the other comments you have made lately. You have some very strong views on this. As you just said, you would like to do away with this tax on individuals earning high earners.

You have talked about doing away with the mandates in Obamacare. You talk about health savings accounts. But other members of the Senate, including other Republicans, have very different ideas. They are worried about these Medicaid cuts in this legislation.

SEN. RAND PAUL: Right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Where is the common ground?

SEN. RAND PAUL: Well, thats what were going to see, if we can find it.

One of the things that horrifies me is that we would be giving taxpayer money to very, very wealthy corporations. The insurance companies make about $15 billion a year. They have doubled their profit margin under Obamacare. And so now were going to take a lot of this and call it a stabilization fund, but really its a bailout of insurance companies.

And I just think thats wrong. I just cant see why ordinary, average taxpayers would be giving money to very, very wealthy corporations. An analogous situation would be this: We all complain that new cars cost too much. Why dont we have a new car stabilization fund and give $130 billion to car companies?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

SEN. RAND PAUL: We could do that in any industry, but its not really good economics. What it is, is, youre simply transferring money from the ordinary, average taxpayers to very wealthy corporations.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But, Senator, my understanding is that plan was put in there to take care of some of those people at the lower income level because of these changes in Medicaid.

I still dont see where the middle ground is between you, other Republicans, and certainly with Democrats.

SEN. RAND PAUL: Actually, the money in the stabilization fund, $130 billion which I call an insurance bailout, is put in to try to cure the adverse selection that Obamacare created by making insurance too expensive. Healthy people didnt buy it.

They tried to fix this by forcing young people to buy it through an individual mandate. Even that didnt work. So the way the Republicans fix it is they dont actually fix it. They subsidize it. So we have to fix what went wrong with Obamacare, not just recapitulate something thats broken.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What youre saying makes it sound like youre still uncertain this is going to pass.

SEN. RAND PAUL: Yes. Im uncertain whether its going to be enough of a repeal bill for conservatives. And we need to adhere to our promise. We promised people wed repeal it. We talked about all the problems of Obamacare. We shouldnt leave half of it in place and expect things to be better.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, we thank you.

SEN. RAND PAUL: Thank you.

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Sen. Rand Paul: Senate health care bill needs more Obamacare ...