Trump and Rand Paul's Relationship Publicly Sours Over Healthcare Battle

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R) and Donald Trump have always had a smooth relationship despite their disagreements on several issues — the biggest of which has always been the repeal of Obamacare — and it looks like the friction is finally rubbing Trump raw.

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On Wednesday, Trump started his morning by publicly jabbing at Paul over the senator’s rejection of the Graham-Cassidy bill.

“Rand Paul is a friend of mine but he is such a negative force when it comes to fixing healthcare. Graham-Cassidy Bill is GREAT! Ends Ocare!” tweeted Trump, adding “I hope Republican Senators will vote for Graham-Cassidy and fulfill their promise to Repeal & Replace ObamaCare. Money direct to States!”

Paul, however, disagrees. Appearing on Fox News on Tuesday, Paul described the Graham-Cassidy bill as swapping out Obamacare with Obamacare.

“This keeps the Obamacare spending,” said Paul. “Keeps well over 90 percent of the spending, and the taxes, and then what it does is reshuffles the money, and it takes it from Democrat states and gives it to Republican states. I think it’s going to end up looking…like a petty partisan bill that doesn’t fix the problem.”

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“What they want to do is reshuffle the money from Republican to Democrat states, and basically keep all of the Obamacare money and taxes in place. That is not repeal in my book,” he added. “I can’t be in favor of keeping the Obamacare spending and just redistributing it in different states.”

In an op-ed for Fox News, Paul also bashed the bill for its spending, pulling us further into debt should it be passed.

This bill is also set to spend us further into debt.  Even the bill’s authors and proponents, using what I’m sure are rosy numbers, admit that their ObamaCare Lite bill will spend 90 percent of what we currently spend on ObamaCare.  Other estimates are closer to 95 percent.  Either way, did anyone go out to vote so we could repeal only 5 or 10 percent of ObamaCare?  I didn’t.

Graham/Cassidy won’t fix our health care problems, and it will become a permanent drain on the treasury – one that is already $20 trillion in debt, with a $700 billion deficit next year.

According to Senate rules on reconciliation, the Republican Senate can pass the bill with 51 votes, at least until September 30 when they would need 60. Republicans can only lose two “yes” votes. With Democrats vowing a solidly to vote “no,” Republicans would need almost everyone in line.

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At this time, Paul is a definite “no” vote for the Graham Cassidy Bill, subtracting one. While he’s the only one planning to vote against the bill, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have serious concerns about the bill, putting it in jeopardy.

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