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WASHINGTON Senate Republican leaders cant seem to find the votes to repeal and replace Obamacare. Theyve had no help from Democrats, of course, who oppose what theyre doingand havent been consulted anyway. But theyve also had no help from two senators in their own party: Susan Collinsof Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Collins and Paul have been a hard no on both of the GOP health care bills unveiled over the last month. Thats made things exceptionally difficult for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.),who can afford to lose only two Republican votes. Its left his latest Obamacare repeal bill hanging by a thread, as a handful of Republicans on the fence threaten to produce the fatal third vote.

Theyre an unlikely pair to ended up united against their party on something. Collins is a pro-abortion rights moderate from a state that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton carried in 2016; Paul is a libertarian-leaning conservative who regularly rails against big government. But their different ideologies explain why they are so opposed to what GOP leaders are doing.

The thrust of Collinsconcern is that Republicans are trying to repeal too much of the Affordable Care Act, to the point where people will get hurt. The GOPs latest bill, which was released Thursday, would cut overall Medicaid funding by more than 30 percent and eliminate the Affordable Care Acts expansion of that program. That would mean millions fewer people would have access to Medicaid, namely low-income and elderly people.

Collins wasted little time announcing her opposition to the bill and instead urged her colleagues to change course and work on a bipartisan fix to Obamacare.

Collins also has problems with the sheer number of people who would lose health care coverage under the bill and the plans negative effect on health care access in rural areas.

The Congressional Budget Office hasnt yet released its estimates on the revision of the health care bill, but under the original Senate version, which isnt that different from the new one,roughly 22 million people would lose coverage.

Susan Collins

Paul, meanwhile, argues that the GOP health care billswouldnt repeal enough of the Affordable Care Act. Hes complained all year about Republicans leaving too much of the law intact, and, when GOP leaders unveiled their initial health care bill in June, he ripped it as too expensive and doomed to fail.

The bill is just being lit up like a Christmas tree full of billion-dollar ornaments, and its not repeal, Paul fumed in a Fox News Sunday interviewearlier this month.

Now the Republicans are getting so weak-kneed theyre saying, Oh, were afraid to repeal the taxes, he continued. What happened to these people? They all were for repealing Obamacare. Now theres virtually no one left.

The Kentucky senator is even less happy with the revised health care bill, which includes new insurance deregulation provisions. The language was added to win support from conservatives, but it comes with more federal spending a big no-no for Paul, who fundamentally disagrees with the idea of the government subsidizing health care.

He aired his grievances in a Thursday op-ed in The Washington Times, headlined Crony Capitalism Isnt a Right, So Why Does Senate Healthcare Bill Give Insurance Companies the Right to a Bailout?

I really cant describe my level of disappointment, Paul wrote. Crony capitalism is enshrined as a right by the new GOP Obamacare bill, while that bill does little to nothing to repeal Obamacare or fix our ailing healthcare sector.

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How 2 Republicans Ended Up At Odds With Their Party On Health Care - HuffPost