The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Staff Reports

Posted: Monday, January 01, 2018 12:25 PM

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul Does Not Think McConnell Has Votes For Health Care Overhaul
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday he doesn’t think Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has enough votes to pass his overall ObamaCare bill, but suggested that the GOP-controlled chamber could still pass a more conservative measure.

"I don’t think he does” have the votes, the Kentucky Republican and Tea Party conservative told “Fox News Sunday.” “We won four elections on repealing ObamaCare … but this doesn’t.”

Paul is one of two Republican senators who publicly does not support the measure, arguing largely that it gives too much subsidy money to health insurance companies in the ObamaCare program.

“That is not a Republican idea, to give taxpayer money to a private industry,” Paul, a doctor, said about the bill's so-called “temporary stabilization fund” that is now at about $200 billion.

McConnell had scheduled a key vote this week on the legislation. But on Saturday night he postponed the vote, following Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain announcing that he had surgery to remove a blood clot near is eye and that he needs about a week to recover.

Without McCain’s vote, McConnell likely couldn’t get 50 “yeahs” from the chamber's 52 senators to pass the bill.