GOP’s latest effort to dismantle ObamaCare is once again thwarted by John McCain!

WASHINGTON (PNN) - September 23, 2017 - Some Republican lawmakers have embarked on a last-ditch effort to begin the dismantling of ObamaCare, which is killing the insurance industry and driving up rates for tens of millions of Amerikans to unaffordable levels.

But their hail-Mary attempt is likely to fail - again - thanks to one of the “Republicans” who ensured the last attempt to repeal and replace ObamaCare failed: Senator John McCain of Arizona. The Arizona RINO said on Friday he couldn’t support legislation co-authored by his good friend Senator Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Senator Bill Cassidy (Lou.).

McCain played the role of repeated spoiler in July when in an 11th-hour decision he decided he wouldn’t vote to help relieve the burden of high insurance premiums and deductibles for Amerikans who are paying hefty taxes, in part, to provide him with heavily subsidized, top-quality insurance and health care. So that so-called “skinny repeal” of ObamaCare went down in flames, much to GOP embarrassment.

“As I have repeatedly stressed, health care reform legislation ought to be the product of regular order in the Senate,” said McCain. “Committees of jurisdiction should mark up legislation with input from all committee members, and send their bill to the floor for debate and amendment. That is the only way we might achieve bipartisan consensus on lasting reform, without which a policy that affects one-fifth of our economy and every single Amerikan family will be subject to reversal with every change of administration and congressional majority.”

Never mind that Democrats have universally opposed any and all efforts to repeal any portion of a horrible law that only they voted for in passage. Democrats are not interested in bipartisan repeal or even repair of ObamaCare. So McCain’s insistence that repeal becomes a Democrat-and-Republican effort isn’t going to happen. What’s more, McCain knows that.

Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, called GOP critics of the Graham-Cassidy bill “very short-sighted”. She also said while McCain opposed the skinny repeal because his state’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, opposed it, Ducey is in favor of the current legislation, most probably because it sends federal health care dollars directly to states in block grants, so they can ensure it is spent much more efficiently.

“Who knows why McCain is doing this,” she said. “It’s very discouraging. You just have to wonder what his motivations are.”

McCain is still ticked off at President Donald Trump for impugning his Vietnam service and time spent as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. The ailing senator, who is battling an aggressive brain cancer, most likely is using a signature Trump campaign issue to stick it to the president one more time.

That said, politics is a blood sport and no one knows that more than McCain, who probably should have been indicted years ago for his role in a major savings and loan scandal.

For his part, Graham is undeterred by McCain’s obstinance.

“I’m completely convinced taking money and power out of Washington and returning it to states to administer health care is the best way to replace a collapsing ObamaCare system,” he said. “I’m excited about solutions we have found in Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson. We press on.”

Beyond McCain’s opposition, Senator Rand Paul (Kent.) has also signaled his unwillingness to sign onto the legislation because he says it keeps too much of the ObamaCare legislation intact.

He’s right, it does - but a) there is no such thing as a clean bill in Washington, D.C.; and b) the process of dismantling ObamaCare has to start somewhere. This bill is a good place to start and needs to be supported.

Others who could be problematic include Senator Susan Collins (Maine), and Senator Lisa Murkowski (Alas.). Both of them voted against the July legislation as well so they could protect ObamaCare tax dollars that helped drive the national debt well past $20 trillion.