were listening to that. the news was crossing. that the senate majority leader told republican lawmakers in this luncheon that the graham/cassidy legislation is a no go. they didn t have enough votes. so enough yeses so why bring it to a vote. try, try again. it failed. is it tax reform time? what is your assessment? the clock is certainly running out on being able to do repeal and replace effort. this is going to remain an albatross around republicans. it is a core promise they haven t delivered on. yet every attempt has not been popular with the american people. which is why they haven t been able to deliver on it. so it is this constant
honestly, terrible. and i say we still have a chance, we re going to do it eventually. we re back and we re going to do a quick check in on health care with our panel. we have more newsmakers coming later in this show. senator rick santorum, you were one of the people helping to craft the graham/cassidy legislation, senator rand paul saying this morning, that if the block grant part of the bill were removed, then he could potentially vote for it. this comes after susan collins said she was almost certainly a no. but what do you make of removing the block grant? i consider that progress, we went from the horrible thing, this obamacare-lite, saying if you do this, i think that ranked paul understands every other vote that s been taken to repeal
it eventually. we re back and we re going to do a quick check-in in on health care with our panel, we have more newsmakers coming later in the show. senator rick santorum, you were one of the people helping to craft the graham/cassidy legislation. senator rand paul, this morning, saying that if the block grant part of the bill were removed, then theoretically, he could potentially vote for it. this comes, of course, after susan collins said that she was almost certainly na no. leaning no. you re such an optimist. i am. but what do you make of that? removing the block grant? that seems like a pretty pivotal part of the bill? i consider that progress. he went from the it s a horrible thing, the obamacare lite to saying, well, if you do this, i think that rand paul understands that we every other vote that s been taken over the past several years to repeal obamacare have been fake votes. not one of those votes, when that vote was cast, that they
insurance companies, doctors, patient advocacy groups, that all appear united in opposition to the bill. let s discuss with matt, the chief operating officer and head of public policy at america s health insurance plans a lobbying group for the nation s largest health insurance companies. thank you for being with us. you represent the nation s health insurance companies, your groups what come your group has come out against the graham/cassidy legislation and lobbied against obamacare. do you believe the new proposal is worse than the status quo what we have under obamacare? thanks for having me here, ana. there are some problems with the existing structure of the market, but what is being proposed to graham/cassidy bill, really would take things to a fundamentally different level that would be much more destabilizing, individuals with preexisting conditions would not be able to get coverage in some cases or it would be unaffordable, medicaid would be
being so against it. my colleague burgess everest and i did a store this morning where senators publicly and privately and more colorful language venting their frustrations about senator paul s stance on the graham/cassidy legislation but senator paul is undeterred was we saw on his interview there. not only undeterred but happy to say his piece on various news programs because he wants conservatives to know he does not believe this is a conservative bill even though republicans several of them as he said are holding their nose and saying they re going to vote for it, he believes this is obamacare light and keeps the taxes and keeps the regulations. and he says it likely. a lot of other republicans say that privately but feel they have to vote for this because they have to do something. there s sort of the political priority we promise this had and have to do it versus the policy which had he look at this and kind of go eh. it s pretty clear as you said that especially president