Republican Senators are feeling the pressure on how they should cast their Republican health care bill vote. Scraping the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) may have been a campaign promise -- important to those who voted for Mr. Trump but not for a majority of Americans -- but Republican governors are “warning their GOP senators to first, do no harm.”
“For these governors, the issue is less about delivering a triumph to President Donald Trump and more about not blowing a hole in state budgets and maintaining health care coverage for constituents. In the critical next few weeks, some governors are uniquely positioned to press home-state Republican senators who could deny Majority Leader Mitch McConnell the votes he needs to pass a Republican health care bill.
"’We are the voice of reality,’ Nevada GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval told The Associated Press.
"’They set policy, but we're the ones who have to develop the budgets, develop the care, develop the plans, work directly with the people,’ Sandoval said. He said if money is reduced, governors will be left to decide among unpopular choices: ‘Raise a tax or limit coverage or change eligibility requirements’ for coverage.”
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Gov. Brian Sandoval, left,
and U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.,
At a news conference in Las Vegas
on the proposed GOP healthcare bill…
© The Associated Press
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Associated Press
