John McCain announces his opposition to Graham-Cassidy, likely dooming the bill

We’re not out of the woods yet, but this is an impor­tant, pos­i­tive devel­op­ment:

Wash­ing­ton, D.C. ­– U.S. Sen­a­tor John McCain (R‑AZ) released the fol­low­ing state­ment today on health care reform:

“As I have repeat­ed­ly stressed, health care reform leg­is­la­tion ought to be the prod­uct of reg­u­lar order in the Sen­ate. 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 Amer­i­can fam­i­ly will be sub­ject to rever­sal with every change of admin­is­tra­tion and con­gres­sion­al majority.

“I would con­sid­er sup­port­ing leg­is­la­tion sim­i­lar to that offered by my friends Sen­a­tors Gra­ham and Cas­sidy were it the prod­uct of exten­sive hear­ings, debate and amend­ment. But that has not been the case. Instead, the specter of Sep­tem­ber 30^th bud­get rec­on­cil­i­a­tion dead­line has hung over this entire process.

“We should not be con­tent to pass health care leg­is­la­tion on a par­ty-line basis, as Democ­rats did when they rammed [the Patient Pro­tec­tion Act] through Con­gress in 2009. If we do so, our suc­cess could be as short-lived as theirs when the polit­i­cal winds shift, as they reg­u­lar­ly do. The issue is too impor­tant, and too many lives are at risk, for us to leave the Amer­i­can peo­ple guess­ing from one elec­tion to the next whether and how they will acquire health insur­ance. A bill of this impact requires a bipar­ti­san approach.

“Sen­a­tors Alexan­der and Mur­ray have been nego­ti­at­ing in good faith to fix some of the prob­lems with [the Patient Pro­tec­tion Act]. But I fear that the prospect of one last attempt at a strict­ly Repub­li­can bill has left the impres­sion that their efforts can­not suc­ceed. I hope they will resume their work should this last attempt at a par­ti­san solu­tion fail.

“I can­not in good con­science vote for the Gra­ham-Cas­sidy pro­pos­al. I believe we could do bet­ter work­ing togeth­er, Repub­li­cans and Democ­rats, and have not yet real­ly tried. Nor could I sup­port it with­out know­ing how much it will cost, how it will affect insur­ance pre­mi­ums, and how many peo­ple will be helped or hurt by it. With­out a full CBO score, which won’t be avail­able by the end of the month, we won’t have reli­able answers to any of those questions.

“I take no plea­sure in announc­ing my oppo­si­tion. Far from it. The bill’s authors are my dear friends, and I think the world of them. I know they are act­ing con­sis­tent­ly with their beliefs and sense of what is best for the coun­try. So am I.

“I hope that in the months ahead, we can join with col­leagues on both sides of the aisle to arrive at a com­pro­mise solu­tion that is accept­able to most of us, and serves the inter­ests of Amer­i­cans as best we can.”

Sen­a­tor Rand Paul of Ken­tucky is also vocif­er­ous­ly opposed to Gra­ham-Cas­sidy, although for dif­fer­ent rea­sons. Sen­a­tors Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkows­ki of Alas­ka have yet to stake out a for­mal posi­tion, but they are con­sid­ered to be like­ly no votes as well. Last time around, it was Murkows­ki and Collins who were alone in their oppo­si­tion until McCain joined them.

This time, McCain has decid­ed to announce his posi­tion in advance.

If Murkows­ki and Collins fol­low suit, Mitch McConnell will almost prob­a­bly opt to pull the plug on Gra­ham-Cas­sidy, and not even bring it up for a vote ahead of Sep­tem­ber 30th. There would be no point in doing so. It would only result in fur­ther embar­rass­ment, putting an excla­ma­tion point on the Repub­li­can Par­ty’s lat­est failed attempt to take away the health­care of mil­lions of people.

Collins is almost ready to com­mit to the same posi­tion:

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins all but said she would vote “no” on an Afford­able Care Act repeal bill on Fri­day morn­ing at an event in Portland.

“I’m lean­ing against the bill,” the Maine Repub­li­can said after list­ing a series of seri­ous defi­cien­cies in the Gra­ham-Cas­sidy repeal bill.

“I’m just try­ing to do what I believe is the right thing for the peo­ple of Maine,” said Collins, appear­ing at the Hol­i­day Inn By The Bay to give a speech about afford­able housing.

Lisa Murkows­ki, mean­while, has most­ly kept qui­et. Repub­li­cans have been try­ing to woo her by putting sweet­en­ers into the bill to ease its destruc­tive impact on Alas­ka. But Murkows­ki has remained noncommittal.

Wash­ing­ton State’s own Unit­ed States Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, the rank­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic mem­ber of the Sen­ate HELP Com­mit­tee, was quick to thank McCain and express her enthu­si­asm for resum­ing her work with Lamar Alexander.

“I agree with Sen­a­tor McCain that the right way to get things done in the Sen­ate— espe­cial­ly on an issue as impor­tant to fam­i­lies as their health care — is through reg­u­lar order and work­ing togeth­er to find com­mon ground,” said Mur­ray in a state­ment. “I’m still at the table ready to keep work­ing, and I remain con­fi­dent that we can reach a bipar­ti­san agree­ment as soon as this lat­est par­ti­san approach by Repub­li­can lead­ers is final­ly set aside.”