Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine sent three tweets Monday evening that made Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s path to 51 votes a lot tougher.
“I will vote no on mtp,” Collins wrote of the GOP health care repeal bill, using the acronym for Motion to Proceed. Collins added she wanted to work with Democrats and Republicans to “fix” the Affordable Care Act but noted that the Republican bill wouldn’t do that. She followed with these tweets:
There’s no wiggle room there for changing her mind. That puts her in step with another relative GOP moderate, Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, who last week said he couldn’t vote for a bill that “takes insurance away from tens of millions of Americans.”
Four conservative Republicans have also signaled misgivings about the bill, but the statements from Collins and Heller are much more convincing. If McConnell also loses Alaska’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski, that could be a wrap since he can’t afford to lose more than two GOP votes.