Article snippet: Posted at 4:30 pm on July 15, 2017 by Joe Cunningham Hanging on by a very tenuous thread, the Senate’s health care reform bill is in trouble. Susan Collins and Rand Paul have each said they will not vote for it, though for drastically different reasons. Paul, taking a principled, conservative stance, disagrees with any effort to change the current system set up by the Affordable Care Act without repealing it outright and starting over. Collins, taking a more liberal stance, doesn’t want Medicaid to suffer under the bill. So, if we were to take a vote right now, we’re looking at 49-50… because one man is considering his options. Mike Lee, who is still reviewing the bill, hasn’t said publicly which way he’ll go on this. His hesitation is understandable. The Cruz-Lee amendment to the original Senate version as not included in this one. It’s just a version of it that doesn’t exactly do what Cruz and Lee wanted. However, Cruz is on board with the bill as it is. I believe Cruz being on board with it is a mistake, however, and I think Lee is right to be undecided right now. For that matter, I would not for a minute begrudge Lee opposing the bill. Mitch McConnell needs Lee’s vote to get the bill to a 50-50 deadlock, allowing Mike Pence to come in and vote to break the tie in the Republicans’ favor. The two Republican defections make this tough on both McConnell and Lee. From a conservative standpoint, this bill is nowhere close to ideal. The fundamental premise of th... Link to the full article to read more