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Groton Daily Independent
Saturday, July 29, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 029 ~ 22 of 67
all GOP orthodoxy, Trump frequently shifted his own stance as to whether the Republicans should repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act at once or simply repeal the law for now.
By week’s end, it was clear that some Republicans simply weren’t afraid of breaking with a weakened president. GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and John McCain of Arizona, who was back in Washington after a brain cancer diagnosis, doomed a last-ditch bill in Friday’s early morning hours.
Murkowski, who was targeted by Trump on Twitter for her opposition, showed little sign of being cowed by the president.
“We’re here to govern, we’re here to legislate, to represent people that sent us here. And so every day shouldn’t be about campaigning. Every day shouldn’t be about winning elections. How about doing a little governing around here?” she asked.
To this point, Trump has failed to shepherd a single substantial piece of legislation into law. His only major accomplishments have been by executive power — rolling back regulations and undoing a few of his predecessor’s achievements, like the Paris climate treaty — along with his successful nomination of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Kelly, who spent his career in the military before being nominated by Trump to run the sprawling De- partment of Homeland Security, has limited political and legislative experience. But at least for now, he has the trust of the president.
“He has been a true star of my administration,” Trump declared.
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Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
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Follow Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Lemire at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire
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This story has been corrected to re ect that Leon Panetta was elevated by Bill Clinton to chief of staff
from budget director, not from the Cabinet, and corrects the spelling of Josh Bolton’s last name to Bolten.
‘Time to move on’ from health care, Senate GOP leader says By ALAN FRAM and ERICA WERNER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The resounding Senate crash of the seven-year Republican drive to scrap the Obama health care law has led to nger-pointing but also has left the party with wounded leaders and no evident way ahead on an issue that won’t go away.
In an astonishing cliff-hanger, the GOP-run Senate voted 51-49 on Friday to reject Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s last ditch attempt to sustain their drive to dismantle President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul with a starkly trimmed-down bill.
The vote, which concluded shortly before 2 a.m. EDT, was a blistering defeat for President Donald Trump and McConnell, R-Ky.
“They should have approved health care last night,” Trump said Friday during a speech in Brentwood, New York. “But you can’t have everything,” he added, seemingly shrugging off one of his biggest legisla- tive setbacks.
Trump reiterated his threat to “let Obamacare implode,” an outcome he could hasten by steps such as halting federal payments to help insurers reduce out-of-pocket costs for lower-earning consumers.
Senate Democrats were joined in opposition by three Republicans — Maine’s Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Arizona’s John McCain. The 80-year-old McCain, just diagnosed with brain cancer, had re- turned to the Capitol three days earlier to provide a vote that temporarily kept the measure alive, only to deliver the coup de grace Friday.
“Republicans in the Senate will NEVER win if they don’t go to a 51 vote majority NOW. They look like fools and are just wasting time,” Trump tweeted Saturday. He said the “Republican Senate must get rid of 60 vote NOW! It is killing the R Party.” But on the crucial vote, a simple majority of 51 votes, including