Saving ObamaCare

He once told us that repealing ObamaCare was the “dumbest” idea he’d ever heard.  It looks like our very own Richard Burr thinks voting to spend BILLIONS on subsidies for big insurance companies to keep ObamaCare afloat is pretty freakin’ smart:

Two key senators on Thursday announced that the bipartisan proposal they’ve crafted to fix Obamacare’s cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments has a total of 24 original co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, reached an agreement with his ranking member, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, and it’s backed by 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans.

The short-term deal would extend CSR payments for the next two years and would eliminate the question about whether paying them is legal. The agreement would permanently amend Obamacare to give new flexibility for states to create insurance policies that have a larger variety and lower costs and it also would continue CSRs during 2018 and 2019.

[…]

Here are the co-sponsors:

  1. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee
  2. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota
  3. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina
  4. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona
  5. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine
  6. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa
  7. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska
  8. Sen. Richard Burr, R-North Carolina
  9. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee
  10. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana
  11. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa
  12. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia
  13. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington
  14. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine
  15. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire
  16. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-North Dakota
  17. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Delaware
  18. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri
  19. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota
  20. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Indiana
  21. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota
  22. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia
  23. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin
  24. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire

Trump opposes this deal, so — of course — it makes *perfect sense* for our very own Tricky Dick (and his special friend Lindsey Graham-nesty)  to sign on to it.  This comes on the heels of Trump’s executive order to scrap ObamaCare subsidies and open the door to interstate insurance sales.