WMAL Interview - LARRY KUDLOW - 09.26.17

8:35 AM -- INTERVIEW -- LARRY KUDLOW - CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry Kudlow Show on WMAL Saturdays at 7 pm and author of "JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity"

Congress working on tax reform and healthcare repeal

TOPICS: - Latest in Congress on healthcare and tax reform GRAHAM-CASSIDY - Collins comes out against ObamaCare repeal bill, effectively killing it. A last-ditch ObamaCare repeal effort by Republicans was all but dead on Monday after Sen. Susan Collins became the third Republican to oppose the measure. Collins announced her opposition minutes after the Congressional Budget Office released an analysis predicting that millions would lose insurance under the proposal if it became law. That was enough for Collins, who had long been seen as an almost certain ‘no’ vote on the measure. She joins Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Rand Paul (Ky.) as GOP “no” votes. Republicans can only afford two defections and still muscle the bill through the Senate. In a lengthy statement, Collins said the most recent ObamaCare repeal bill, which had been reshaped Sunday in an effort to win her over, “was as deeply flawed as its previous iterations.” She cited the CBO’s score as one of her reasons for opposing the legislation authored by GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (La.), while also criticizing its cuts to Medicaid, its weakening of protections for people with preexisting conditions and predictions by insurers, hospitals and other groups that it would lead to higher premiums and less coverage for people.

Orrin Hatch Says It Is ‘Virtually Impossible’ To Pass Graham-Cassidy.(Daily Caller) -- Sen. Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch told reporters Monday that it will be “virtually impossible” for Republicans to pass the latest iteration of Obamacare repeal legislation on his way into the only public hearing on the bill.

181 people were arrested outside a hearing room where senators were discussing the GOP health care bill. U.S. Capitol Police arrested 181 people during demonstrations outside a hearing room where U.S. senators were discussing a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare.” The Graham-Cassidy Bill, considered by some Republicans as their last chance to make changes to health care law, appeared all but dead late Monday. But earlier in the day, protesters had to be cleared from the hearing room, chanting, "No cuts to Medicaid, save our liberty!"

TAX REFORM

GOP senators reject combining health, tax reform in 2018 ( The Hill) - With the latest effort to overhaul ObamaCare looking dead just days before the Sept. 30 deadline, Senate Republicans are putting the kibosh on suggestions that the effort be combined with tax reform in 2018. “Heavens no. We’re not going to do that,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Tax Committee. “It would just screw up the whole thing.” Republicans were relying on a budget process called reconciliation to avert a Democratic filibuster on health care. The health-care specific instructions passed in the 2017 budget expire on Saturday, and Republicans plan on using the 2018 instructions to pass tax reform.