Susan Collins Has All the Cards----For Now

Corker, Collins, and Flake.  Remember those names.  It takes three Republican Senators to hold up one of the most important pieces of legislation in the Republican Party’s history, and these three know it.

Two, (Corker and Flake), are retiring and have nothing to lose in screwing up the bill.  Susan Collins (R-Maine), who caters to liberal thinking more often than not, also knows that as long as the three of them remain “no’s” together, they’ve got the entire Republican Senate by the balls----and, she’s squeezing them tighter than than a bull's asshole in fly season.

All Collins wants? Two years of ObamaCare subsidies and “a host of other issues”:

“Collins has been pushing for lawmakers to pass Alexander-Murray, which provides two years of ObamaCare cost-sharing reduction payments, as well as her legislation with Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) that would provide funding for "reinsurance" programs aimed at bringing down premiums.

Passing both bills, Collins argues, is necessary after a repeal of ObamaCare's individual insurance mandate was included in the tax bill. She noted that the Collins-Nelson measure is also part of the deal.

"I still would prefer that the individual mandate [repeal] were not in the bill. ... It complicates this whole issue and when you pull one piece of the Affordable Care Act out it has an impact on premiums and that's why Alexander-Murray and Collins-Nelson are so important," she said.”  (LINK)

As you can see, Mz. Collins is still hanging onto the dream of saving ObamaCare, even though the program is on its last legs.  She wants it all…………or nothing, or, it's a big fat no.

Then again, if either Flake or Corker decide to “play their hands” ahead of her, McConnell can tell Collins to go pound sand.

All the Republicans need is just ONE VOTE from one of them to hit the 50, and VP Pence gets all the glory, errr breaks the tie, sending this bill to conference.

McConnell should at least check with both Corker and Flake to see if their cost/price might be a little cheaper than Collins’ demands.  Again, it only takes one to break Collins’ stranglehold on the rest of the Republican Senate.


It’s “Let’s Make a Deal” Time.


(cross-posted at The Sparta Report)