Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), flanked by Republican and Democratic senators on both sides, unveiled the Alexander-Murray bill on Thursday, a bill proposing that Congress appropriate money to shore up ACA investors. One Axios reporter, Dylan Scott, provided a list of Republican co-sponsors.

According to coverage over this legislation, some senators supportive of the effort believe that they would be able to get their bill passed along with the omnibus spending bill at the end of the year. But in contrast with the trend throughout the year, not only is support for a bipartisan bill to fix the ACA out of the norm, but it's also inconsistent.

Despite President Trump saying this week that "they" would provide a temporary fix for Obamacare, just minutes after Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) announced his bipartisan bill on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made his own statement against it. In his statement, he said that his Senate members hadn't made time to see their way forward to health care reform.

Clearly, his statement confused all approaches to health care, after his party had repeatedly tried and failed to repeal Obamacare all year, otherwise referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Trump confuses next steps on health care with Democrats

On Thursday of last week, the President sent his own mixed signals as to what he wanted to do with the ACA. His suggestion to fix the health care law the President was persistent about repealing, was seen as a flip-flop by Republicans. President Trump then signed an executive order that would eventually allow people to buy insurance across state lines.

The following day, he did what many had already feared he would do and canceled monthly subsidy payments the federal government gives to insurance providers that are part of the ACA's marketplace.

If anything, his actions were a clear indication that he wanted to weaken the ACA. However, Trump confused lawmakers are Americans once again when he said "we" would provide a temporary fix.

Just a week before this, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would be happy to work with the President on bipartisan legislation but said he would not take any part in repealing and/or replacing the ACA. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted out his stance against the Alexander-Murray bill repeating a belief that Republicans have held, that fixing Obamacare meant they were bailing out insurance companies.

Republicans unite against Obamacare fix

Schumer also said that Democrats would fight the President tooth and nail over repealing Obamacare.

One report by the Washington Post titled: "Another last-ditch effort to tackle Obamacare stalls within hours of its release", reported on many Republicans who were furious about making any attempt to save Obamacare. Especially, after they had spent now 9-years trying to repeal it. Overall, the President's proclamation to fix the ACA was unexpected.

As opined in the last month, Republicans could have accepted their recent failure to repeal Obamacare and waited for next year to try again. Certainly, with the President canceling the Cost Sharing Reduction Subsidies, sabotaging it would be the next best thing and in line with what Republicans have been wanting to do. But Republicans were already looking towards legislating over tax reform which only gives them more of a reason to ignore any further legislation on the ACA.

Republicans had already made various attempts to block the bipartisan bill last month when Orrin Hatch froze the negotiations, House Speaker Paul Ryan said they would not vote on the bill and President Trump vowed to veto it if it made its way to his desk. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) who worked with Sen. Alexander on the bill also acknowledged that Republicans would be able to block their efforts.
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