Good Friday morning, I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook Audio Briefing, sponsored by Postmates. And I'm Jake Sherman. If you talk privately to most Hill Republicans, they'll tell you they're in a jam on Obamacare and don't know how or if they'll get out of it. The options aren't great. If they move the bill to the right, they'll lose moderates. Move it to the left, conservatives will dash. And either way, when they send it to the House, it faces a very uncertain future. That's why Senator Ted Cruz is rising momentarily.

His amendment has been sent to the Congressional Budget Office and is in play in the

health care debate. It basically allows insurers to sell non-Oabomacare compliant plans,

which would, if you listen to the supporters, economically devastate the Affordable Care Act.

Still, it's hard to see how Mitch McConnell threads the needle here to get moderate senators

who have publicly come out against the bill or even skeptical about the bill,

like Senator Dean Heller of Nevada and Susan Collins of Maine to switch their vote.

And even if this puts Cruz and Senator Mike Lee of Utah

in play, it still means McConnell will have to find a way to get his home state Senator Rand Paul,

someone GOP leadership never thought they could count on, on board. Case in point, Washington media

descended on Palco, Kansas for a Jerry Moran town hall, and boy, did he get an earful. Our colleague Sungman Kim reports that Moran voiced significant concerns with the Republican's Obamacare Appeal Plan. It's important to note, if Jerry Moran is truly a holdout, and it sure sounds like he is, it's real difficult to see how when Obamacare repeal passes the Senate. Moran won his last election with 70% of the vote and his principal political hurdle, generally speaking, would be a primary

challenge. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sure sounds like he was hedging his bets at a

Rotary Club lunch in Kentucky. Washington Post Juliet Elprin and Amy Goldstein report that McConnell

said Thursday, if his party fails to pass the Obamacare

rewrite, they will have to work on a more modest package with Democrats to support the

law's existing insurance markets. This is the first time McConnell has explicitly raised the

idea of shoring up the ACA, the two reports. House majority whip Steve Scalise underwent surgery for infection.

His medical teams said the lawmaker tolerated the procedure well.

During a news conference several days after the shooting,

Scalise's medical team said they expected the congressman would have an infection

at some point during his recovery.

And it's finally happening.

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