Senate mulls next steps after dueling Obamacare fixes go up in flames
There is still a desire to solve the looming healthcare cliff after dueling votes in the Senate on partisan Obamacare fixes crashed and burned Thursday, but both sides of the...
By Fox News · Fox News
There is still a desire to solve the looming healthcare cliff after dueling votes in the Senate on partisan Obamacare fixes crashed and burned Thursday, but both sides of the aisle are still miles apart from finding a middle ground. The enhanced Obamacare subsidies are set to expire by the end of the year, and Congress is gearing up to leave Washington, D.C., at the end of next week until the new year. There are several options on the table, including numerous Senate Republican proposals or just moving ahead with a short-term extension of the subsidies. But lawmakers have to land on what exactly they want to do, and what could pass the 60-vote filibuster threshold, first. SENATE DEMS' OBAMACARE FIX FAILS AS SENATE LOOKS FOR OFF-RAMP FROM HEALTHCARE CLIFF "I think the question is, do the Democrats, after they got their messaging vote done, actually want to engage in a real conversation about this," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said. "Because it didn't seem like they had a real high level of interest in reforms, but there are some who do. I don't know if there are enough, but I think we're going to get a sense of that here very soon." Thune echoed what many Republicans in the upper chamber believed: Senate Democrats' three-year extension of the subsidies was never meant to succeed, but only served as a political messaging exercise. Still, four Senate Republicans crossed the aisle to vote for Democrats’ plan. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, argued that she voted for both proposals not because both were exactly what she wanted, but because she wanted to get the ball rolling toward a solution. "Sometimes around the Senate, we have to demonstrate what we can't do first before we can get to what we need to do," she said. "Today was the first step in that process of demonstrating what we can't do now. Let's get on with it and fix it." SENATE DEMS BLOCK REPUBLICANS' HSA PLAN AS OBAMACARE DEADLINE NEARS Conversely, the GOP’s first attempt wasn’t going to pass mu…