WASHINGTON (AP) – In the presidential campaign, Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are rising in the polls. Back in the Senate, their ambitions can sometimes be a nuisance for fellow lawmakers, including vulnerable Republicans up for re-election next year.
The latest example: Rubio and Cruz are pushing for the Senate to go farther than the House when it takes up legislation to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law. They want to make good on promises to repeal “Obamacare” in its entirety, rather than a more targeted repeal approved recently by the House.
But other Senate Republicans are resisting, objecting in particular to trying to repeal the health law’s Medicaid expansion. A number of Senate Republicans represent states where Medicaid, the health care program for the poor, was expanded under the law.