As the GOP’s Senate healthcare reform bill struggles to gain momentum, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) punting a vote beyond his previously stated July 4 deadline due to a lack of support, it seems the public is even less enthused than Republican lawmakers.
An AOL News survey released Wednesday found that the bill remains even less popular than ObamaCare, with 58 percent of respondents saying they would prefer to stick with President Obama’s unpopular Affordable Care Act over the Senate’s replacement.
In a devastating sign of Republican lawmakers’ inability to sell their legislation, only 28 percent of those polled said they preferred the GOP bill, while 14 percent said they weren’t sure.
The AOL survey didn’t find better news for House lawmakers back in May when it polled the House version of the bill — finding that 60 percent of those polled had an unfavorable view of the bill, with just 31 saying they favored it.
Democrats have universally opposed the bill, while a number of conservative lawmakers, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) have come out in opposition to the bill, saying it doesn’t go far enough in repealing ObamaCare and bringing healthcare costs down.
Some conservative commentators have also opposed the bill. Ann Coulter called the bill “ObamaCare Lite” Tuesday and said voting for it was like “buying Golden West Financial right before the crash.”
Moderate Republicans such as Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) have also opposed the bill, after the Congressional Budget Office said that 22 million people would lose insurance if the bill was passed.
McConnell can only afford to lose two Republican votes to get the bill through.
Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.