JUDY WOODRUFF: The latest Senate
Republican push to replace
the Affordable Care Act has
come to nothing.
Now party leaders say they
will try for just repeal.
Lisa Desjardins begins
our coverage of the past
tumultuous 24 hours.
SEN.
MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), Majority
Leader: I regret that the
effort to repeal and immediately
replace the failures
of Obamacare will
not be successful.
LISA DESJARDINS: A remarkable
statement and a bitter admission
for Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, that
Republicans still can't
muster the votes on
a health care bill.
It became clear last night,
after Utah's Mike Lee and Jerry
Moran of Kansas said they'd
vote against the
revised version.
With that, McConnell
changed course, and decided
to go for pure repeal.
SEN.
MITCH MCCONNELL: A majority
of the Senate voted to pass
the same repeal legislation
back in 2015.
President Obama vetoed it then.
President Trump -- President
Trump will sign it now.
LISA DESJARDINS: McConnell
proposed delaying the effective
date of repeal for two years,
so both parties can
work out a replacement.
But, almost immediately, three
Republicans came out as no's
to McConnell's idea That's
enough to kill it.
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska,
Shelley Moore Capito
of West Virginia, and
Susan Collins of Maine
all said it is too risky
to repeal without an
immediate plan for what next.
SEN.
SUSAN COLLINS (R), Maine: I
do not think it is going to be
constructive to repeal a law
that, at this point, is so
interwoven in our health care
system, and then hope that, over
the next two years, we
will come up with some
kind of replacement.
LISA DESJARDINS: At the same
time, Democrats are flexing
their muscles against repeal.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer:
SEN.
CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY),
Minority Leader: Passing
repeal now is not a door
to bipartisan solutions,
as the majority leader
suggested this morning.
Rather, it is a disaster.
The door to bipartisanship
is open right now.
Not with repeal, but
with an effort to improve
the existing system.
LISA DESJARDINS: Even
though it seems certain
to fail, Republican
leaders said they're going
to press forward and hold
a vote some time soon.
SEN.
MITCH MCCONNELL: Well,
I think we will have
to see what happens.
We will have demonstrated that
Republicans by themselves are
not prepared at this point
to do a replacement.
DONALD TRUMP, President
of the United States:
We're not going own it.
I'm not going to own it.
LISA DESJARDINS: At the White
House, President Trump was left
lamenting the latest health
care failure, and insisting
the fault lies elsewhere.
DONALD TRUMP: For seven years,
I have been hearing repeal
and replace from Congress.
And I have been hearing
it loud and strong.
And then, when we finally get
a chance to repeal and replace,
they don't take advantage
of it.
We will let Obamacare fail, and
then the Democrats are going
to come to us and they're going
to say, how do we fix
it, how do we fix it?
LISA DESJARDINS: As recently
as yesterday, Mr. Trump sounded
more confident, in a quick
aside to Vice President Pence.
DONALD TRUMP: We're
getting it together.
And it's going to
happen, right, Mike?
MIKE PENCE, Vice President of
the United States: Yes, sir.
DONALD TRUMP: I think.
(APPLAUSE)
LISA DESJARDINS: Mr. Trump has
repeatedly said he's willing
to sign a repeal-only bill.
The vice president, who spent
much of the day on Capitol
Hill, urged lawmakers to do
something.
MIKE PENCE: Inaction
is not an option.
Congress needs to step up.
Congress needs to do
their job, and Congress
needs to do their job now.
LISA DESJARDINS: House
Speaker Paul Ryan sounded
a similar note, and also
said the House bill,
which repeals and replaces
Obamacare simultaneously,
is still -- quote --
"the best way to go."
REP.
PAUL RYAN (R-WI), Speaker of the
House: Well, we'd like to see
the Senate move on something.
LISA DESJARDINS: And House
Budget Committee Chair Diane
Black joined the chorus urging
the Senate to act.
REP.
DIANE BLACK (R), Tennessee:
We're going to be eternally
optimistic that the Senate is
going to get their work done.
LISA DESJARDINS: Meanwhile, a
bipartisan group of 11 governors
called for the Senate to reject
efforts to repeal Obamacare
now and replace it later.
So, when we will see the
next votes in the Senate?
Senator John Cornyn, the number
two Republican in the Senate,
told my colleague Ellis Kim
(ph) and some other reporters
tonight he expects that
vote this week -- Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Lisa,
from what you're reporting, it
doesn't sound like they have
the votes to pass
repeal, so what are they
going to do after that?
LISA DESJARDINS: Right,
it's fascinating.
They're frantic to take a vote
now that likely will fail and
looks it like, Judy, after that,
they're ready for a
180-degree turn to move
from this closed-door
process they have had
until now for the past seven
months to a more open, public,
kind of regular process that,
as it's known here in the
Senate, with committee hearings.
Late tonight, the chairman
of the Health Committee
here in the Senate, Senator
Alexander, announced
he does plan to holding
open hearings on health
care and stabilizing
the markets, regardless
of the vote.
And, Judy, it's worth noting
those three senators who are the
no votes, who are essentially
blocking this latest effort from
Mr. McConnell, they're are all
senators who were not included
in the closed-door meetings.
Those female senators now
saying they think it should have
been open like this all along.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So,
Lisa, this is a big
hit for the Republicans
in the Senate and the
Congress overall.
What are they saying to you?
How do they feel about this?
LISA DESJARDINS:
They're very raw, Judy.
One of them told me that
they're just exhausted.
Another said today's meeting
of all Republican senators
was -- quote -- "robust."
Translation of that,
Judy, it was tense.
There is some real fear
about what this means for
their elections next year.
There are real questions
about what it means to hold a
vote that is likely to fail.
Why are they doing that?
Why does Mitch McConnell
want to hold the vote?
Well, the theory is that he
wants to show who is to blame
for blocking their repeal
efforts and to say they gave
it their best try, but that
idea could, of course, ricochet
and harm some of their
senators as well.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, what about
Majority Leader McConnell?
Is his standing
secure after all this?
LISA DESJARDINS: Well,
one senator, Ron Johnson
of Wisconsin, made an
extraordinary statement
today, saying he doesn't have
confidence in Mitch McConnell
anymore and doesn't trust
his leadership.
But, Judy, he was an exception.
Other senators, including
Lisa Murkowski, told me they
do have confidence in him.
She gave a great quote
today, Judy, to us.
She said that Mitch McConnell
is trying to keep the frogs
in the wheelbarrow and doing
as well as he can.
Fascinating, because she's one
of the frogs that actually has
jumped out of that wheelbarrow,
but it looks like for now
his leadership will stay
and he will stay in power.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I
like the metaphor.
Lisa, what does all this
mean for health care?
Because the Republicans have run
several plans up the flagpole.
They haven't passed.
Where do they stand?
Where do we stand?
LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.
This was the fifth draft, maybe
the sixth draft, depending
on how you count it this
year.
Let's just get to some
bottom lines for what we're
doling with now as Americans.
It looks like now the effort to
have massive Medicaid reform,
large-scale cuts in the numbers
of Medicaid recipients
in the future, that
effort now seems dead.
However, the fate of
the Medicaid expansion
under Medicaid -- under
the Obamacare, that
is not clear.
We will have to see what
happens in negotiations.
But, overall, Medicaid itself
will largely stay as it is now.
Also, the idea of repealing
Obamacare wholesale, that
seems unlikely to happen.
We will see what happens in
the next vote but it seems most
likely, Judy, that Obamacare
will stay largely within the
framework it has now and that
the discussion will shift
to how to fix it and
how to stabilize markets
within that framework.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And this -- you
and I were talking earlier,
this will have an effect
on the larger Republican
leadership agenda as well.
LISA DESJARDINS:
Oh, a huge effect.
They're hoping that it will not
be catastrophic, but now they
are jammed up against some very,
very limited time on
the calendar, Judy.
And they have some must-do
things like passing
spending bills, which,
as we know, is never
easy, but also a debt ceiling
limit that must be raised some
time in the next few months.
And in addition to
that, they are trying to
still pursue tax reform.
That is a once-in-a-generation
kind of achievement.
They're trying to do it in
this very kind of caustic,
sharp environment with health
care still waiting.
And it's unclear about what
of that will happen or when it
can all happen, but Republicans
say they're still going to try.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And in just a
few seconds, Lisa, you were also
telling us today the Republicans
in the House rolled
out their budget.
LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.
This is something not to be
missed and would be a headline
probably in most other weeks,
but that's right.
This Republican budget document
is just a starting step in
spending process, but it's
important, Judy because
they're doing something
very new this year.
They are proposing cutting not
just discretionary subjects,
which are your usual government
agencies we talk about,
education and so forth,
but they want to cut
mandatory programs as
well in their budget.
Those are things like Social
Security, Medicare, food stamps.
They want to use those cuts
in those mandatory programs to
help things like the defense and
also for tax cuts, so
something to watch.
JUDY WOODRUFF: It's
a lot to watch.
Lisa Desjardins, thank
you for being our eyes
and ears at the Capitol.
We thank you.