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Speaker 1: In a dramatic one thirty am vote, Republican Senators Lisa

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Speaker 1: Murkowski and Susan Collins, joined by Senator John McCain of

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Speaker 1: and all forty eight Democrats, voted down the so called

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Speaker 1: Skinny Repeal Bill, ending Republican's latest effort to repeal the

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Speaker 1: Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. After the vote,

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Speaker 1: President Trump tweeted that he now expects to deal with

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Speaker 1: Democrats after Obamacare fails, which he says he has been

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Speaker 1: saying is going to happen. He calls the law a disaster.

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Speaker 1: Here to talk with us about what happened last night

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Speaker 1: and in the last few days and what the Trump

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Speaker 1: administration might do now in regard to healthcare, is Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: News congressional reporter Laura Litvan, who's been following this obviously

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Speaker 1: very closely. Laura, the Republicans have talked for years and

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Speaker 1: years about repealing Obamacare. They have been desperately trying to

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Speaker 1: get something done in what was really an extraordinary process

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Speaker 1: over the last week. Why haven't they been able to

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Speaker 1: come up with something that repeals the Affordable Care Act. Well,

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Speaker 1: they're very torn between their moderate and their conservative wings

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Speaker 1: in the Senate. We've we see more of that in

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Speaker 1: this chamber than the House. They have just a fifty

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Speaker 1: two seat majority, and UM, you had conservatives who wanted

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Speaker 1: certain things, and you had moderates that wanted others, and

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Speaker 1: it just they could not seem to come together. And UM,

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Speaker 1: even if the skinny what they called the skinny Repeal Bill,

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Speaker 1: which was a bare bones bill that just had repealed

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Speaker 1: the individual and the employer mandates and made a few

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Speaker 1: other changes, even if that had gone through UM, and

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Speaker 1: if that would have just started an amendment process that

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Speaker 1: was going to be totally free from and we never

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Speaker 1: had any idea whether the final product UM would have

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Speaker 1: been able to pass either. So they've been really struggling

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Speaker 1: with this for weeks and now they have to figure

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Speaker 1: out if they have a path forward and what that is.

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Speaker 1: Laura McCain, John mccains centered. John McCain said after the

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Speaker 1: fail year of the bill, did his vote that the

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Speaker 1: Senate should return to the correct way of legislating and

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Speaker 1: send the bill back to committee hold hearing to receive

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Speaker 1: input from both sides. Why was none of that dawn

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Speaker 1: in this process? Even this last bill wasn't released by McConnell.

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Speaker 1: The text of it until a few hours before the

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Speaker 1: pivotal vote. Well, that's the process that McConnell has used

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Speaker 1: all along, and um, it's very I I covered Obamacare

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Speaker 1: the first time it passed. It was very much in contrast.

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Speaker 1: We had five hearing of five committees that had hearings

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Speaker 1: and had votes. There were there were a lot of

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Speaker 1: closed door negotiations then, and reporters standing in the hallway

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Speaker 1: outside of those as well, But this was almost this

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Speaker 1: was almost entirely um, really entirely closed door, with a

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Speaker 1: small number of senators invited to take part in a

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Speaker 1: working group, even they didn't know which of their ideas

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Speaker 1: they were throwing out. McConnell and his aids were taking

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Speaker 1: People were shown bills just hours before they were supposed

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Speaker 1: to um vote on them or weigh in on whether

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Speaker 1: they would support them or not. They were having these

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Speaker 1: constant caucus meetings, and I felt that you could see

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Speaker 1: some of the members were puzzled by the process, and

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Speaker 1: some times these seem to feel demoralized by it, especially

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Speaker 1: when it finally came down to looking at just a

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Speaker 1: bare bones approach being put before them, and that was

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Speaker 1: all they could seem to agree on. Laura. President Trump,

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Speaker 1: along with the congressional Republicans, has been very disparaging of

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Speaker 1: the law, and after the votes said that the three

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Speaker 1: Republicans and forty eight Democrats let the American people down

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Speaker 1: in a tweet and that now he's going to watch

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Speaker 1: the law implode and there will be a deal with Democrats.

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Speaker 1: Then a lot of people have accused him of trying

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Speaker 1: to sabotage the law. Though what can the administration do

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Speaker 1: now if they want to make the law not work?

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Speaker 1: What are they going I'm starting to repeat the end

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Speaker 1: of what will they do if they want to sabotage

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Speaker 1: the law? In some ways? Well, what the Democrats have

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Speaker 1: accused him of doing all along is um not being

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Speaker 1: supportive of these costuring subsidies that amount to I think

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Speaker 1: it's about eight billion a year in Obamacare that helped

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Speaker 1: to subsidize um the deductibles and other costs for low

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Speaker 1: income Americans who around the insurance exchanges. And these are

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Speaker 1: subsidies that go to the insurers, and the insurers kind

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Speaker 1: of depend on these to get some stability in that

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Speaker 1: marketplace and some certainty, and they haven't really been supportive

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Speaker 1: of those and have been pushed and pushed by Democrats

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Speaker 1: UH to continue making them. And the question now is,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's it seems that it would be very

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Speaker 1: hard for them to go forward forward with anything by

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Speaker 1: part of it without costuring subsidies and other things that

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Speaker 1: stabilize the exchanges. And it's he seemed to threaten in

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Speaker 1: a tweet that he said that maybe they would try

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Speaker 1: to cause more problems for the exchanges, and people weren't

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Speaker 1: quite sure what he's sending another round of mixed signals,

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Speaker 1: and it's but that it's going to be the bedrock

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Speaker 1: of anything that would be by partisan That's the first

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Speaker 1: thing that Democrats want. Lord, could he also get his

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Speaker 1: agencies not to enforce the individual mandate? There is some

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Speaker 1: flexibility there. There are some things that they can do

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Speaker 1: at HHS which I'm not as familiar with as a

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Speaker 1: whole reporter. But um, yes, there are some things administrative

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Speaker 1: believe that they have done and they could continue to

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Speaker 1: try to do. I suspect um, but there'll be a

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Speaker 1: lot of pressure from the Hill on HHS not to

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Speaker 1: do that, from Republicans like Lamara Alexander, which shares the

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Speaker 1: Health Um Committee which oversees HHF, and he wants to

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Speaker 1: cea stability in the exchanges and has his own proposal. Well.

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Speaker 1: Our thanks to Laura lit Van, Bloomberg News Congressional reporter,

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Speaker 1: after what must have been a very long night for you, Laura,

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Speaker 1: following the machinations and the Senate over what was ultimately

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Speaker 1: a doomed attempt to repeal Obamacare, even on what they

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Speaker 1: called a skinny basis. Coming up on Bloomberg Law, we're

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Speaker 1: going to be talking about more from the Trump administration

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Speaker 1: this time. The Department of Justice has intervened in a

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Speaker 1: lawsuit in which a gay person is claiming the Title

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Speaker 1: seven employment law protects him against discrimination and the Justice

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Speaker 1: Department despite the fact that the e O C backs

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Speaker 1: the worker. The Justice Department has now filed a brief

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Speaker 1: saying that it's not true.