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Sen. Rand Paul discusses the GOP health care bill before a TV interview on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March, 15. | AP Photo

By Aidan Quigley

03/22/17 10:56 AM EDT

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said Wednesday he hopes the GOP will pull the American Health Care Act from consideration ahead of an expected vote on the bill's passage tomorrow.

My hope is they will pull the bill today sometime and that when they pull the bill, well have a serious conversation with conservatives at the table, he said during an appearance on Fox Business. And well come to an agreement. We want to come to an agreement, and that agreement is for complete repeal.

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President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan have been pushing the bill aggressively, as holdouts from moderate and conservative wings of the party threaten the bills passage. A vote on the bill is expected to occur Thursday.

Paul blasted Ryan and the rest of the Republican leadership for proposing a bill which maintains some aspects of Obamacare.

Thats not what we ran on, thats not what we voted for, he said. If there is a fault to be had, its in the leadership putting forward something that is not what we ran on.

The Kentucky senator said grassroots conservatives do not like the bill, which he called Obamacare-lite.

I think there is a little tone deafness up here, theyre not realizing, he said. I saw go home and listen to people on both sides of the equation. Nobody likes the bill.

Paul added there is no rush to pass the bill.

Theres not a rush to do it in one day, he said. I think we could have a week, a couple of weeks of discussion. The most important thing is conservatives should have a seat at the table.

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Rand Paul: I hope the GOP pulls back the health care bill today - Politico

On Tuesday, President Trump warned House Republicans that if they didn't vote for the GOP health care plan they could potentially face political problems.The warning was given a day after Republican leaders released amendments to try and sway critics and naysayers of the proposal.

Regardless of the warning, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said that he will vote no against the American Health Care Act because it does not fully repeal Obamacare.

I have a lot in common with the president in that we both ran on repealing ObamacareWe [conservatives] ran on repealing it not replacing it with Obamacare Lite and I think Paul Ryans plan wont fix the problems. I think it will continue to allow the insurance premiums to skyrocket, he told FOX Businesses Lou Dobbs.

Paul is anticipating that the GOP health care bill will fail because lawmakers are already building bail outs for the insurance companies.

My replacement strategy is let everybody in America join a buy-in group, he said. Im not for subsidizing and keeping the prices up for insurance companies, Im for giving everybody the ability and freedom to join a group to bring prices down.

Paul thinks that he can get Democrats on board with his proposal to have Americans buy into pools or co-ops, which he believes will bring down premiums.

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Theres 100 billion in there to bail out the insurance companies, so insurance companies have actually doubled their profits under Obamacare. I am not feeling sorry for the insurance companiesAnd the Ryan plan will continue that, what I really want to do is empower the consumer so we bring down the insurance rates and bring down the ability of the insurance company to make money off the tax payer, he said.

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Rand Paul: I Will Vote No Against the GOP Health Care Bill - Fox Business

Last-minute negotiations over the American Health Care Act could lead reluctant members of the House Freedom Caucus to vote for the reform measure, but it would take changing the bill into one that would "actually lower insurance rates," Sen. Rand Paul said Wednesday.

"The most visible problem with Obamacare is the spiraling upwards premiums in the individual market," the Kentucky Republican told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.

"We need to do something to bring those prices down, and that means you have to repeal the insurance mandates of Obamacare, and also we have to provide hope for the millions of people in the individual market that we are going to give them something better."

Paul, who calls the AHCA "Obamacare-lite," advocates allowing people participating in the individual healthcare marketplaces to be able to insurance through group plans as one way to bring down costs.

"Imagine 37 million people in AARP having one person negotiate their rate," said Paul. "Everybody talks about how drug prices could come down through leverage, and insurance prices could come down through leveraged prices as well. We need to offer something that is hopeful to people and we are not doing that yet."

To make the ACHA a "good bill and have good stuff in it," many of the "Obamacare-lite" items can be removed that House Speaker Paul Ryan wants, continued Paul, including that the new legislation allows just half as many subsidies as Obamacare did.

"Get rid of the the regulations and offer people hope by joining a buying group, and do it through budget reconciliation," said Paul, pointing out that Vice President Mike Pence can, while acting as Senate President, rule that the bill is reconcilable.

"If we have the guts to do it, and I don't know if we have the guts to do it, we have the power to do it," said Paul.

"They say the chair rules and not the parliamentarian. The vice president should come to the Senate and say we are getting rid of all of the Obamacare regulations, and we are also going to replace it with buying groups, and we have something positive we could offer."

Meanwhile, Paul said he believes President Donald Trump is backing the AHCA because he's been told things by House leaders that "frankly are not accurate."

"He has been told this is the only vehicle, and Paul Ryan has been saying it for weeks, it's a binary choice, you take it and it's my way or the highway," said Paul. "I think he has been fed a bill of goods on this thing, and there's a bill we could pass that would bring down costs and this bill doesn't do it.

"I have fought against Obamacare for years and I am a physician and I want to repeal it, but not with replace it with something that doesn't work or is just a high."

Paul noted that as a surgeon who has done charity work for his whole career, he has a great deal of sympathy for people who can't afford insurance, but he wants a better program, not just another government plan.

"Medicaid doesn't work," said Paul, and many doctors don't take the paln because they are not paid well through it. "The better health insurance is a good job and good insurance, and if you have to work for a small employer, let's let you join a large group."

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Sen. Rand Paul: Better Healthcare Option Could Change Freedom Caucus' Mind - Newsmax

Republican Sen. Rand Paul said the House GOP health care bill is unlikely to pass in Congress because there are "enough conservatives that dont want 'Obamacare lite.'

The Kentucky senator told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" Sunday that the Republican-led Congress should repeal Obamacare in its entirety.

He says the current bill, which is set for a vote Thursday in the House, doesn't go far enough. They're going to repeal part of it and leave in place all of the stuff that causes your insurance rates to go through the roof, Paul said.

Paul added that the House GOP plan doesnt fix the fundamental problem of Obamacare, which he said are the mandates on insurance companies.

"My fear is that a year from now people are going to come back and were going to have all the same arguments that insurance premiums are still going through the roof and we still have a mess, he said.

Paul said he has his own health care plan that "actually forces prices down, forces the insurance companies to come to the table," instead of subsidizing health care.

In a separate interview Sunday on This Week, Stephanopoulos asked Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price about Pauls proposal for a clean repeal of Obamacare and a wide open debate about how to replace it.

Price said that would place vulnerable people at risk.

Thats not something that the presidents willing to do, said Price. What [the president] has said is that repeal and replace need to occur essentially at the same time ... Thats what were moving forward with in this first phase.

Paul, in his interview, countered this view. They call it repeal and replace, but when it doesn't fix the problems and you say you've fixed the problems, they're going to own it. And I promise you, in a year, the insurance markets will still be unraveling ... They have in the House plan bailouts for insurance companies. Conservatives are not for bailing out the insurance companies. We're for empowering the consumer to drive prices down so you can get better-cost insurance, the Kentucky Republican said.

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Rand Paul says GOP health care bill unlikely to pass in ...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) reacted angrily to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ken.) on the floor of the Senate on March 15. (C-SPAN)

Stop me if youve heard this before: Two Washington politicians disagree with each other. Then they call each other names.

Except this time, the name-calling got out of hand really quickly. And now, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) are just the latest example of the sorrystate of our political discourse.

Let's start from the beginning.

Wednesday afternoon,McCain was working with two Democratic senators to request a Senate vote on allowing Montenegro, a small Balkan nation, into NATO. The Senate vote is one small but important step in Montenegros nearly decade-long process to be allowed into the treaty group, which includes much of North America and Europe.

McCain spoke passionately on the Senate floor in favor of letting Montenegro in, most especially because it would serve as a direct rebuke to Russia. Russia, McCain said, wanted to kill the prime minister and overthrow the government in order to keep Montenegro from becoming part of NATO.

McCain and his two Democratic colleaguespushed for unanimous consent to approve the treaty ascension. Unanimous consent isa procedure senators can deploywhen there'shardly any opposition to their proposal. If no senatoropenly objects to it, the issue at hand will automatically pass without all 100 senators having to take a vote.

Then Paul walked in, offered his objection and walked away.

McCain was dumbfounded. And visibly angry. Here are his comments in full:

That is really remarkable. That a senator blocking a treaty that is supported by the overwhelming number, perhaps 98 at least, of his colleagues, would come to the floor and object and walk away. And walk away. The only conclusion you can draw when he walks away is he has no argument to be made. He has no justification for his objection to having a small nation be part of NATO that is under assault from the Russians. So I repeat again: The senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin.

A United States senator is now working for the Russian president.Thats a striking thing to say on the Senate floor ever, let alone at a moment in time when Congress is investigating Russias meddling in the U.S. election and the FBI is looking into the presidents ties to Russia.

The next morning, Paul was on MSNBCs Morning Joe, where he was asked by host Willie Geist aboutMcCains comment.

Paul said:You know, I think he makes a really, really strong case for term limits. I think maybe hes past his prime; I think maybe hes gotten a little bit unhinged.

Not that anyones innocent in this, but Paul could have answered the question on the policy merits alone and avoided calling an 80-year-old senator unhinged. Something like, You know, the senator is entitled to his opinion. But heres why I oppose letting Montenegro into NATO would have worked.

Now Paul isin the position of escalating a name-calling battle. It undercuts Pauls argument that McCain went too far (and that two people who disagree can have a rational discussion on NATO). Andfrom McCains perspective, his quote about Paul and Putin being in cahoots overshadows the reason he said it.

(McCains office explained in a statement to The Fix on Thursday: Senator McCain believes that the person who benefits the most from Congresss failure to ratify Montenegros ascension to NATO is Vladimir Putin.")

Paul did go on to explain on MSNBC why he objected to allowing Montenegro into NATO. It would make the United States more vulnerable to situations where it might have to use force, said Paul. He and McCain exist on opposite ends of the spectrum of foreign policy views within their party. Where McCain believes military force abroad can be a tool for good, Paul isvery, very skeptical of its power and any circumstance that might lead the United States to have get involved in other nations affairs.

We get it.When two people disagree about important things, passions can run high, and sometimes you say stuff you regret.

But this Paul-McCain back-and-forth doesnt feel like an isolated personality-driven quarrel.

Rather, it feels like yet another marker in howour political discourse that thing that allows people to have civil disagreements without attacking each other personally. Last week it was a senator accusing the president of shamelessly lying. This week its two senators declaring each other unhinged and working for Vladimir Putin. Next week, it'll be something else, Im sure.

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Rand Paul calls John McCain unhinged after McCain says Paul ...