(VOX.com) — “Collins said she would vote for the bill as long as Republicans agreed to pass the bipartisan Alexander-Murray bill to attempt to stabilize the Obamacare exchanges by adding it to an end-of-year spending bill.”
Compared to the last-minute Senate drama during the attempt to repeal Obamacare this summer, the GOP tax bill sailed through the chamber late Friday night.
Just like the health care vote, there were a small number of Republican senators who seemed like they might hold out. But unlike last time, Senate leadership managed to successfully cut deals with these senators to secure “yes” votes.
Chief among them were Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Bob Corker (R-TN). The three had different reasons for initially opposing the bill; Corker and Flake feared it would balloon the deficit by $1 trillion over the next 10 years, while Collins was most concerned about the provision in the tax bill that would kill Obamacare’s individual mandate and cause millions to lose their health insurance, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Click to continue reading. By Ella Nilsen – Dec 20, 2017.