Donald Trump

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to repeal and replace “Obamacare” is now in the hands of a key group of GOP senators who are opposing -or not yet supporting – legislation Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing to bring to a vote this week.

These lawmakers range from moderate to conservative Republicans, and include senators who were just re-elected and a couple facing tough re-election fights. Their concerns about the legislation vary along with their ideology, from those who say it’s overly punitive in ejecting people from the insurance rolls, to others who say it doesn’t go far enough in dismantling former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine tweeted after the Congressional Budget Office analysis on Monday that the Senate bill won’t fix the flaws in the current bill. She says she will vote no on the “motion to proceed.”

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin says he has “a hard time believing I’ll have enough information for me to support a motion to proceed this week.”

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky says it’s worse to “pass a bad bill than to pass no bill.”

CUOMO WEIGHS IN ON SENATE HEALTHCARE BILL

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo (left) and Congressman Tom Reed (right)

Meanwhile, Gov. Andrew Cuomo hasn’t been shy about voicing his criticism of the Senate version of the health care bill. In a statement released Monday following an assessment report released by the Congressional Budget Office on the Senate Plan, the governor said the report shows that Republicans in the Senate are choosing to put millionaires over the middle class, cutting taxes for the rich at the expense of the health care of millions of Americans.

“This bill will leave 22 million more Americans without health care coverage, including 15 million more Americans by next year alone,” The governor noted. “Just like the House bill, this legislation is a death trap for New Yorkers. The Senate bill will jeopardize health care coverage for millions of New Yorkers, raise premiums on the poor and the elderly, and eliminate more than $7 billion for New York’s health care system, including life-saving funding for the fight against the opioid crisis. It also specifically targets New York, threatening to withhold federal tax credits for New Yorkers because of our support for women’s reproductive rights.”

He also said that the inclusion of the Faso-Collins amendment – which aims to eliminate the local contribution counties pay the state to help cover the cost of Medicaid – would force every resident to pay more through a new state tax.

“And by including the reckless Faso-Collins amendment, this bill will force every resident of this state to pay a ‘Faso-Collins Federal Tax’ added onto local property taxes to make up the $2.3 billion shortfall created by their proposal,” The governor noted.

Cuomo said he’s already called on the state’s Congressional delegation to do everything within their means to protect New York residents and not support the measures. However, Chautauqua County’s representative in Congress, Republican Tom Reed of Corning, released a statement critical of the governor, calling him a liar and a bully who’s done nothing for upstate New York.

“Governor Cuomo is a liar who has done nothing for upstate New York,” Reed said. “He’s a one trick pony for whom everything is an excuse to raise taxes. He needs to buck up like other governors and start reining in the cost of Medicaid and figure out more efficient ways of spending the taxpayers’ money. Instead, he acts like a bully and threatens a tax hike on middle class families.  I’d like to see Gov. Cuomo run for president owning the highest tax increase in America.”

This week, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced a plan that would do just that. In a media release sent out on Tuesday, Gillibrand said the bipartisan Gillibrand-Collins Dairy Pricing Reform Act will reform the way the United States Department of Agriculture sets dairy prices.   

The Farm Bill that passed the Senate last fall included many programs to help New York farmers, but the House of Representatives failed to complete their work on the bill, and none of the new programs became law.

Gillibrand said that while dairy remains New York’s leading agricultural product – producing nearly 13 billion pounds for a value of $2.75 billion – dairy farmers are suffering from a range of setbacks. High fuel costs, and severe grain and hay shortages continue to push up the cost of production, yet the price paid to farmers remains stagnant.

As a result of the loss in business from flawed policy, dairy farms across New York State are forced to cut resources, and sell off cows. Nearly 65,000 cows were lost from New York dairy farms from 2002 to 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

To prevent further problems for dairy farmers, Gill Senator Gillibrand and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) will be introducing the Dairy Pricing Reform Act next week when the Senate returns to session.

The bill forces the USDA to begin the hearing process to restructure the pricing system and direct the Secretary of Agriculture to release the Department’s recommendations to Congress. This bill also builds on language Senator Gillibrand secured in the Senate Farm Bill (S. 10) that requires the USDA to study different methods of determining prices, including competitive pay pricing or shifting from a 4 class system to a 2 class system.