Paul signals he will oppose Senate healthcare bill

Conservative Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has declared he will likely oppose the revised Senate healthcare bill expected to be released Thursday despite the efforts of his home-state colleague, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

In an op-ed for Breitbart and in a conference call with reporters, Paul said he could not support the legislation because it would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to help low-income Americans buy health insurance.

“Remarkable. If the GOP now supports an insurance stabilization fund to lower insurance prices, maybe they now support a New Car stabilization fund to lower the price of cars. Or maybe the GOP would support an iPhone stabilization fund to lower the price of phones,” he wrote on Breitbart.

{mosads}“The Senate ObamaCare bill does not repeal ObamaCare. I want to repeal that so everyone realizes why I’ll vote ‘no’ as it stands now,” he added.

Paul delivered the same message in a Wednesday conference call with reporters, arguing the revised legislation is largely the same as the bill GOP leaders unveiled on June 22 and a handful of Republican senators blocked from reaching the floor.

“I can’t support it at this point,” Paul said, according to The Washington Post.

Paul noted one of the biggest changes to the bill was the decision to keep in place ObamaCare’s taxes on high-income earners, a 3.8 percent surtax on capital gains and dividends and a 0.9 percent Medicare surtax.

Conservative groups have criticized the new version of the legislation for letting two major ObamaCare taxes stand.

The Club for Growth said leaving the tax rate for capital gains in place would be “a step in the wrong direction.”

“This tax, just like any tax increase, is an anathema to conservatives as it suppresses economic growth and opportunity throughout our nation,” the group said in a statement last week.