Club for Growth ramps up pressure ahead of ObamaCare vote

The conservative Club for Growth on Wednesday ramped up the pressure on Republican senators to vote for a bill repealing ObamaCare without a replacement.

The group warned that failing to vote for the motion to proceed to the plan early next week would be “tantamount to supporting Obamacare.”

“The Republican Party has promised voters for seven years to repeal Obamacare. And they have been rewarded on Election Day, in part, because of that promise,” Club for Growth wrote in an email.

“It is finally time to deliver on their pledge. If Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allows the first amendment for consideration to be identical, or nearly similar to the 2015 repeal bill — he has stated he will — then failure to pass such a motion to proceed would be tantamount to supporting Obamacare.”

The group warned that the vote would be included on its 2017 scorecard, which ranks lawmakers on their voting record for “pro-growth, free-market” policies. 

“Obamacare is crippling our economy and restricting our freedom. It needs to be repealed immediately,” the group said.

“Our Congressional Scorecard for the 115th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.”

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On Monday, two GOP senators announced their opposition to the plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, forcing McConnell and Senate leadership to decide to instead pursue a clean repeal of the law, followed by a replacement at a later date.

On Tuesday, that plan was put in jeopardy when three Republican senators announced they wouldn’t support moving forward. Later that day, President Trump predicted that the GOP would “let ObamaCare fail.”

“I think we’re probably in that position where we’ll let ObamaCare fail,” Trump said Tuesday.

“We’re not going to own it. I’m not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We’ll let ObamaCare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us.”