Doug Jones victory makes ACA repeal less likely - Entrepreneur Generations

Jones with his wife Louise. (Washington Post photo by Bastien Inzaurralde)

Alabama Democrat Doug Jones' narrow win yesterday over Roy Moore for a U.S. Senate seat will make any future Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act even more difficult.

"Up until now, the Senate GOP's 52-seat majority allowed the party to lose two votes on a health-care bill, with tie-breaking help from Vice President Pence. That’s an important number, because the two most moderate Republicans – Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine – have been regarded as nearly impossible to bring on board," Paige Cunnningham reports for The Washington Post.

The election was held to fill the seat left vacant by Jeff Sessions' appointment as U.S. Attorney General. Former Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange was appointed to serve until a special election could be held, but lost to Moore in the Republican primary for the race to fill the seat until the end of the term in 2021. Jones will likely begin his term in early January.

It seems unlikely that the GOP will renew their push for an ACA repeal in the months leading up to the 2018 midterm elections, but "behind the scenes, some GOP lawmakers are also convinced they should return to the effort once taxes are out of the way -- after all, repealing Obamacare is something they relentlessly promised when a Democrat was in the White House," Cunningham writes. "The GOP idea is to pass a new budget resolution for next year, giving them another way to avoid attracting Democratic support for a controversial health-care measure by seeking just 50 votes for it."

In the meantime, Jones isn't waiting until January to make use of the bully pulpit; in his victory speech last night he called on Congress to "go ahead and fund that CHIP program before I get up there." He refers to the Children's Health Insurance Program, which expired without reauthorization Sept. 30 and covers 9 million children from low- and mid-income families who cannot afford health insurance.

from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/2ymPuZ1 Doug Jones victory makes ACA repeal less likely - Entrepreneur Generations

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