Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Sunday said he doesn't think Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has the votes to pass the Senate GOP's healthcare bill.
"I don't think right now he does," Paul, a vocal critic of the Senate's healthcare plan, said on "Fox News Sunday."
Paul said the real problem is that Republicans won elections on their promises to repeal ObamaCare.
"But this bill keeps most of the ObamaCare taxes, keeps most of the regulations, keeps most of the subsidies," he said. "And creates something that Republicans have never been for, and that's a giant insurance bailout superfund."
Paul then again floated the idea of first repealing and later replacing ObamaCare. There is significant resistance to that idea among other senators, including Republicans, although the White House has indicated President Trump is open to it.
"What I've suggested to the president ... if this comes to an impasse, I think if the president jumps into the fray and says 'Look guys, you promised to repeal it, let's just repeal what we can agree to,'" Paul said.
"And then we can continue to try to fix, replace or whatever has to happen afterwards," he continued.
Republicans should try to repeal as many of the taxes, regulations and mandates as possible, Paul said.
Paul was later pressed on whether he would rather keep ObamaCare than pass the current GOP's healthcare legislation.
Paul said he thinks the current system is "terrible."
"The death spiral of ObamaCare is unwinding the whole system, and it will continue to unwind, but I don't think Republicans should put their name on this key part of ObamaCare," Paul said.
"And then we're going to be blamed for the rest of the unwinding of ObamaCare. It's a really bad political strategy and it's not going to fix the problem."
McConnell on Saturday announced Senate consideration of the healthcare legislation would be delayed while Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) recovers from surgery.