Ron Johnson, other GOP senators force delay of health care vote

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

WASHINGTON – Republicans abandoned their hopes for quick passage of a sweeping health care bill in the Senate this week in the face of defections from both moderates and conservatives in the party.

Among them: Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, who had lobbied party leaders for days to delay the vote and give lawmakers and their constituents more time to understand and evaluate a far-reaching proposal that cut taxes, reduced Medicaid coverage and dismantled key pieces of Obamacare.

The move left the party stymied for now in its signature, marathon quest to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans will continue to "litigate" their differences in the days ahead, but they face a difficult task in trying to meet the objections of senators with fundamental and, in some cases, opposing concerns.

“If none of you have ever covered a big, complicated bill, they’re hard to pull together, hard to pass," McConnell told reporters. ”Legislation of this complexity almost always takes longer than anybody else would hope, but we’re going to press on. We think the status quo is unsustainable.”

Senate Minority Leader Charles "Chuck" Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, "We know the fight is not over."

He called the GOP bill "rotten at the core" and said Democrats in the coming weeks will be watching "this bill and all the machinations behind closed doors like a hawk."

President Donald Trump met with GOP senators at the White House after the vote was postponed, telling them, "If we don't get it done, it's just going to be something that we're not going to like."

Interviewed afterward on MSNBC, Johnson said, “I was very encouraged by the White House meeting.”

McConnell's decision to postpone a vote on the measure until after next week’s Fourth of July recess came after at least five GOP senators — including Johnson — said they would oppose bringing the bill to the floor this week.

Johnson told the Journal Sentinel on Monday that it was "absurd" to demand a vote this week and that GOP leaders would be doing so "at their peril."

“I have been very upfront” with McConnell, Johnson said on Fox News Tuesday morning. “I have told him, 'Don’t jam me.' "

The Wisconsin Republican issued a statement after McConnell's announcement saying: “I'm pleased Senate leadership has agreed to give us more time to analyze the health care bill. A vote this week would have been rushed, and I look forward to taking time in the coming days to improve this bill.”

With a majority of 52 in the Senate, Republicans could only afford two defections. But Susan Collins of Maine, Dean Heller of Nevada, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky had also vowed to block a vote. Even more Republicans made it clear after the postponement that they, too, had major problems with the bill.

Sen. Ron Johnson responds to reporters June 22 at the Capitol after Republicans released their long-awaited bill to scuttle much of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

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One big blow to the legislation came when the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 22 million fewer people would have insurance after 10 years under the measure, and that many older, poorer Americans who buy their own insurance would pay far more for it. The bipartisan governors association also asked the Senate to delay voting.

Some of the senators who balked at the bill are GOP moderates who thought it went too far in rolling back coverage and cutting Medicaid.

"It’s difficult for me to see how any tinkering is going to satisfy my fundamental and deep concerns about the bill,” said Collins.

Ohio's Rob Portman and West Virginia's Shelley Moore Capito both cited the impact of the bill's cutbacks on funding for treatment of opioid addiction — a huge issue in their states.

But several others are conservatives who think the bill doesn’t go far enough in dismantling the mandates in Obamacare. That includes Johnson, who blasted the measure in a New York Times op-ed Monday, saying it threw money at the problem.

Johnson criticized the bill for preserving a key feature of Obamacare: rules requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions. The Wisconsin Republican said such mandates drive up premiums, and the government instead should be encouraging state-based high-risk pools for those with costly pre-existing conditions.

In pushing for delay, Johnson suggested that conservatives with more time could effectively make a public case for the kinds of changes they want in the bill.

But Senate leaders and the White House will also be under pressure from moderates to move the legislation in the opposite direction.

Johnson’s stance against a vote this week brought cheers from one of his polar opposites politically, House Democrat Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, who said on a conference call with reporters Tuesday, “I want to commend Senator Johnson in his concerns about the process and I hope he will stick to his convictions under a lot of pressure.”

Pocan acknowledged that on the actual policy behind the Senate health bill, he and Johnson are far apart.

“I respect his concern about the process. He and I may disagree about the final product,” said Pocan.

Before McConnell's announcement, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin joined fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill to decry the bill, offering examples of their own constituents who they said would be hurt by the GOP measure.

Baldwin singled out the issue of pre-existing conditions, saying that as a young girl she suffered a serious illness that made it hard to get coverage.

"The people of Wisconsin did not send me to the U.S. Senate to take people’s health care away," she said.