Starting Monday when the Senate comes back into session, Democrats will use all the parliamentary tools they've got to grind Senate business to a halt over Trumpcare. And not a moment too soon.
"If Republicans won’t relent and debate their health care bill in the open for the American people to see, then they shouldn’t expect business as usual in the Senate," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
A senior Senate Democratic aide said that starting on Monday evening Democrats will object to "all unanimous consent requests in the Senate," though there could be a narrow exception for honorary resolutions.
If Democrats stick to the tactics they will be able to block any committees from meeting after the Senate has been in session for more than two hours. […]
They're expected to make a series of unanimous consent requests on Monday evening on the House-passed ObamaCare repeal and replacement bill, including trying to send it to a Senate committee and "forcing Republicans to publicly defend their 'no hearings strategy,'" according to the senior Senate Democratic aide. […]
In addition to giving floor speeches, Democrats will also "make a series of parliamentary inquiries" to try to show the difference between the months of public negotiating that took place over the Affordable Care Act and the GOP's process to pass its own healthcare bill.
With the hot-off-the-presses news that Mitch McConnell and team were talking about even deeper Medicaid cuts the Democrats' resolve is likely only to get stronger.
If McConnell is truly hell-bent on passing Trumpcare in the next two weeks, there's not a lot Democrats can do from the minority to stop him, but they can make it painful and embarrassing for every Republican senator, which might just do the trick.
Call your Democratic senator/s through the Capitol switchboard, 202-224-3121 and thank them for being part of the resistance.