Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” while discussing the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said he was “afraid if they vote for the bill, they’ll put the House majority at risk next year.”
Cotton said, “As it’s written today, this bill cannot pass the Senate. I believe it would have adverse consequences for millions of Americans and wouldn’t deliver on our promises to reduce the cost of health insurance to Americans. I would say to my friends in the house of representatives, with whom I serve, do not walk the plank and vote for a bill that cannot pass the Senate and then have to face the consequences of that vote. George, you were in the White House in 1993. You remember when House Democrats voted for a BTU energy tax. Not only did that not become law, it didn’t get a vote in the Senate. And those Democrats lost their next election because they voted on that tax. They call it getting BTU’d. I don’t think this bill can pass the Senate. And therefore, I think the house should take a pause and try to get as close as we can to a good result before they send to it the Senate.”
He added, “I’m afraid if they vote for the bill, they’ll put the House majority at risk next year. And we have majorities in the house and the senate and the White House. Not only to repeal Obamacare and get health care reform right, to reform our taxes and our regulations and to build up our military and to accomplish many other things. I don’t want to see the house put at risk on a bill that won’t pass the Senate. That’s why I think we should take a pause, try to solve as many of the problems on Medicaid and the individual insurance market in the bill in the house, and then allow the Senate to take its work up. ”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN