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As far as we know, there is no Trumpcare bill actually written down in the Senate, but that's apparently not keeping Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from trying to force through a vote in the next two weeks, according to reports to Axios's Jonathan Swan.
Some senators want to delay the vote but McConnell views that as delaying the inevitable. There are no mysteries about what the toughest disagreements are over—Medicaid funding and insurance market regulations. […]
- Behind-the-scenes: McConnell and Senate leaders have been at this for all of May and now first couple weeks of June, turning their weekly lunches into working sessions on various aspects of the healthcare legislation. They've whittled down the stack of items that people don't agree on. I've spoken to a number of people who know McConnell well who speculate that he'll force a vote regardless of whether he knows he has 50 votes. They say he's desperate to move on to tax reform and can't have healthcare hanging around like a bad smell through the summer.
To achieve that, they have to finalize negotiations and get the final agreement to the Congressional Budget Office for a score—they can't vote without it.
Other reports say that McConnell is considering canceling the August recess in order to get everything on the Senate schedule completed, because the goal of having a Trumpcare vote by July 4 is "unrealistic." There's still internal opposition, with the Senate's very own trio of Freedom Caucus-type maniacs supposedly opposing a push to gain moderates. Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Ted Cruz (TX) are all reportedly causing problems, but Lee and Cruz are both on McConnell's death panel of senators negotiating the bill.
Meanwhile, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is offering tepid resistance to the secretive process McConnell is using to write the bill, and says she won't vote for it if there isn't a CBO score. Never mind that it can't come to the floor if it doesn't have one under Senate rules. She also said she would oppose the bill if it defunded Planned Parenthood. Consider this Collins staking out her negotiating position against the maniacs—McConnell is going to have to decide which three of his 52 senators get a free pass to vote agains this bill, knowing he can count on Vice President Mike Pence to break a tie vote.
These threats about canceling August recess are likely part of the pressure McConnell is bringing on his caucus to have Trumpcare voted on in the next 13 days. Which makes this week absolutely critical. Call your senators through the switchboard at 202-224-3121. Tell Republicans to stop trying to take health care away from millions. Tell Democrats to do everything in their power to make passing Trumpcare as painful as possible for Mitch McConnell and team.