Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) voiced the death knell for any renewed attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act Wednesday, telling Fox News’ Bret Baier that the Senate won’t waste its time with something that has “literally no chance of becoming law.”
Even when Baier brought up the possibility that the current court action will propel the law back to the Supreme Court where it hypothetically could be struck down as unconstitutional, McConnell demurred.
“Then we will have to revisit the whole matter but that’s not likely to happen anytime in the next couple of years,” he said. “I think people need to take a deep breath and settle down and let us work on some of these more modest fixes that I think the American people need and deserve.”
President Donald Trump abruptly took up the cause of killing the Affordable Care Act again recently, throwing his hope and support behind a lower court ruling that would invalidate the entirety of the law. Several states and D.C. appealed that ruling, and expedited oral arguments are scheduled to begin in June.
Trump’s zeal created a headache for Republicans, many of whom are still bruised from the Democrats’ health care-themed triumphs of 2018 and who realize that taking health insurance away from 20 million-plus Americans with no backup plan would be an unmitigated disaster.
