Kentucky Gov Bevin’s Support for Graham-Cassidy Obamacare Repeal Puts Mitch McConnell on Notice

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said on Friday that he informed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of his support for the Graham-Cassidy Obamacare repeal legislation.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) revealed this week that Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin supports the Graham-Cassidy legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare through block grants. Graham said on Fox News,

Matt Bevin, the governor of Kentucky, came out for the block grant approach. Matt Bevin is a great conservative; he’s figured out that if I take the money that would have been spent on Obamacare and you give it me in Kentucky with flexibility I can get better outcomes for the citizens of Kentucky, rather than some bureaucrat in Washington.

At the White House, Kellie Meyer from Gray TV asked Gov. Bevin, “Now McConnell seems like he’s putting the pressure on Cassidy and Graham to get these votes. Have you spoken with the Majority Leader?”

Gov. Bevin responded:

I have and I know that there is pressure. Both the Senate and the White House themselves have said that the votes are just not lined up waiting to be cast, there is a lot work to be done. I spoke with Sen. Cassidy about that earlier today. He is confident as they are able to make the case to folks that it is easier and easier for people to understand. It’s a function of communication and education. We’ll see there is a limited amount of bandwidth here; there is a lot that needs to be done in the month of September. We’ll see what happens, but Sen. Cassidy and Sen. Graham are very confident that they will be able to find those votes. We’ll see if they do.

Gov. Bevin’s support for the bill puts pressure on Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky senator, to gather support amongst Senate Republicans to pass the Obamacare repeal bill. Congressional Republicans have until the end of the month to pass an Obamacare repeal bill using budgetary reconciliation that would allow for the bill to pass with only a simple majority in the Senate.

On Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Kevin McCarthy signaled their support for the Obamacare repeal bill, suggesting that they could expedite the bill’s passage through the House if it were to pass through the upper chamber.