Many House Republicans went sleepless Wednesday night, as they performed a parody of the “markup process” — pushing their (widely reviled) health-care bill through two committees without accepting a single amendment.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton rewarded his colleagues’ hard work Thursday morning, by publicly denouncing it.
The Arkansas senator went father in an interview with CNN Thursday afternoon.
“What we need to deliver on is the promise that we would make health care more affordable for Americans. We would make it more accessible. And we would cut down on the stress and anxiety that health care causes for Americans,” Cotton said. “Unfortunately, the House’s legislation is not going to achieve those results. And the breakneck speed at which it’s moving is designed to actually make those results, probably, worse.”
Cotton went on to say that the American Health Care Act (AHCA) “would not solve the problems of our health-care system,” and that “I am simply saying in public what many Republicans are voicing” in private.
Several Republican senators have raised concerns about the House bill. But Cotton’s rebuke may be the most emphatic. It’s also, perhaps, the most surprising — Cotton has been one of Donald Trump’s more reliable defenders in the Senate, and the president has implored his party to support the House bill.
Other GOP senators may soon join Cotton in caustic opposition. A Brookings analysis released Thursday afternoon projects that the AHCA would throw 15 million off their insurance plans — and those in red states would be the hardest hit.
