McConnell encourages Graham, Cassidy to continue ObamaCare repeal push

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday encouraged two key senators to continue working on legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

McConnell encouraged Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to keep working to cobble together enough votes to pass their ObamaCare repeal legislation.

“I wish them well,” McConnell said and added that if the senators can get the votes next year, he’d encourage the Senate to vote on the bill.{mosads}

McConnell’s comments mark a slight shift in tone, as they come a day after he said that the Senate will likely be moving on from ObamaCare repeal next year.

“Well, we obviously were unable to completely repeal and replace with a 52-48 Senate,” McConnell told NPR on Thursday. “We’ll have to take a look at what that looks like with a 51-49 Senate. But I think we’ll probably move on to other issues.”

The Senate Republican leader will see his majority shrink to 51-49 once Alabama Democrat Doug Jones is seated in January.

McConnell said he would “love to make more substantial changes to ObamaCare than we have,” but noted that the GOP tax bill that President Trump signed Friday repealed the individual mandate, which he said was “one of the pillars” of the law.

McConnell’s comments signal that for all the talk of moving on, Senate Republicans can’t quite give up on the idea of completely repealing and replacing President Obama’s signature health law.

Cassidy and Graham were the main authors of a last-gasp effort to repeal ObamaCare in the fall, just ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline for using reconciliation to pass a bill with only 51 Republican votes.

The legislation gained surprising momentum in its final days, but ultimately failed, and the Senate never voted on the bill. Graham and Cassidy have vowed to keep working on it next year.