Campaign Action
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has become the third Republican to throw cold water on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's attempt to bring a simple repeal of the Affordable Care Act to the floor. McConnell wants to bring up the Zombie Trumpcare bill that the House passed and then amend it with a simple repeal bill, giving the Senate a two-year deadline to replace it (like that’ll happen). Thus, the key to stopping this entirely is in the motion to proceed to considering the House bill in the first place. Three senators now saying that they will not vote on that motion to proceed stops this thing in its tracks. They are perilously close to being there.
Note that only Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has definitely slammed the door on voting to bring this up, but Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Murkowski make it exceedingly complicated for McConnell. Here's Murkowski:
NBC: Where are you on the motion to proceed?
Murkowski: I'm not there. (NBC: Not there?) Nope. (NBC: You would vote against the motion to proceed?) I said in January that we should not repeal without a replacement and just an indefinite hold on this just creates more chaos and confusion.
Capito says that "I will only vote to proceed to repeal legislation if I am confident there is a replacement plan that addresses my concerns." Which is kind of ridiculous, considering they have had seven years (and six months in the latest push) to come up with a replacement plan that could possibly pass out of both chambers of a Republican Congress and failed. She should just be a definitive "no" but somehow isn't willing to shut that door and make sure McConnell doesn't go forward with this.
It seems really unlikely at this point that McConnell can even bring a procedural vote to the floor, unless he does it just to be a total asshole and to force his own members to take a miserable, thankless vote. Just in case he is that much of an asshole, let's keep the pressure up.