US Congress returns to battles over health care, budget

Washington, Jul 9: US Congress is still trying to send President Donald Trump his first unqualified legislative triumph, nearly six months after Republicans grabbed full control of Washington.

Now, lawmakers are returning from their July 4 recess with an added objective -- averting some full-blown political disasters. The GOP campaign to repeal Democrat Barack Obama's health care law is bogged down in the Senate and flirting with collapse. Efforts to pass a budget are stuck, there's no tax code overhaul package, spending bills are in limbo and it's unclear how leaders will find the votes to avert a federal default.

The difficulties flow from Republican divisions. Collectively, the problems are threatening to sink top GOP priorities and undermine the party's ability to show it can govern effectively. Lawmakers have three weeks of work before an August recess. Some Republicans are making noise about shortening that respite, but doing so would be a step shy of sacrilege on Capitol Hill. It took the House several tries to pass its bill aiming to annul much of Obama's health care law.

Now, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is struggling to find GOP votes for a similar package replacing that 2010 statute with one easing insurance coverage requirements, cutting Medicaid, erasing penalties on people not buying insurance and repealing



tax increases on the well-off. McConnell, R-Ky., unexpectedly called off a pre-recess vote on the measure -- which he'd written privately -- as it became clear it would lose.

With Democrats arrayed unanimously against him, McConnell needs at least 50 of the 52 GOP senators to vote yes or witness the mortifying crumpling of his party's high-decibel pledge to uproot Obama's law. McConnell has been calibrating changes that might win over worried Republicans, but there's no sign he's made progress. Two GOP senators, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John McCain of Arizona, issued dire forecasts today, saying the initial bill is probably 'dead.'

Revisions under consideration would lessen the bill's Medicaid cuts, boost spending for programs combatting drug abuse, fatten health care subsidies for low earners and make it easier for insurers to sell skimpier, lower-cost policies. A vote is expected no earlier than the week of July 16.

McConnell has said if the measure flops, he'd push a narrower bill propping up ailing health insurance marketplaces. Republicans are stuck on a fiscal blueprint for the coming budget year, with disputes between conservatives and moderates over how deeply to cut programs like food stamps. None of the 12 annual spending bills financing federal agencies is finished. Disagreements have slowed work on a tax overhaul.