Tuesday on CNN’s “Newsroom,” after walking in a Fourth of July parade, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said she was still a firm no vote on the Republican health care bill in its current form.
Partial transcript as follows:
REPORTER: For all the talk of when senators can go back to their districts, they’ll hear about it—what, in fact, are you hearing from your constituents?
COLLINS: What I’ve heard the entire recess is people telling me to be strong, that they have a lot of concerns about the health care bill in the Senate. They want me to keep working on it, but they don’t want me to support it in its current form.
REPORTER: What I saw when I was walking with you was it was almost like 100%. I heard nothing to the contrary. Does that surprise you at all?
COLLINS: It really doesn’t. Maine is a state that’s really heavily dependent on Medicaid funding. When people realize that the Senate bill over the next two decades would reduce funding by 35%, they know that it affects their rural hospitals, it affects the rural nursing homes and that it would affect them the most. So I found that Mainers are very well informed about the legislation and they’re deeply concerned about what it’s going to mean for themselves and their neighbors.
REPORTER: Still a no?
COLLINS: I’m still a no unless the bill is dramatically changed.
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