The new version of the Senate bill to replace Obamacare is chock full of handouts to secure the votes of reluctant Republicans.When the initial vote on the legislation was tabled in late June, the thinking was that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell still had about $188 billion in savings he could dip into in order to assuage the concerns of Republicans who felt the bill was either too cruel or not business-friendly enough.
The bones of the bill are still largely the same, according to a summary of the legislation, and there are still a number of mostly moderate Republican senators on the fence about the bill. For instance, the bill would still change Medicaid from an entitlement with no budget limitation to specific payments made to states. This is partly why people like Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, who was the first Republican to come out hard against the bill, said on Wednesday that he did not support the revised version.
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