If Republicans can ram their latest assault on health care through the Senate, the House will face a take-it-or-leave-it situation, since the Senate’s ability to pass a bill with just 51 votes ends on September 30. But even though the House had trouble passing its own Obamacare repeal bill months ago, Speaker Paul Ryan says he and his caucus will take whatever the Senate sends them, because taking health care away from millions of people is just too important to worry about the details.
“We hope the Senate does pass Graham-Cassidy,” Ryan said. “We are encouraged at the development of Graham-Cassidy. And I am encouraging every senator to vote for Graham-Cassidy because it is our best last chance to get repeal and replace done. And I do believe it is a far greater improvement over the status quo.”
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows agreed that the Graham-Cassidy measure is the GOP’s last shot. [...]
“If it gets to the House it will have waiver language that gives governors plenty of flexibility,” Meadows predicted. “I can’t imagine the conservative senators voting for it without waiver language that would be acceptable to most Freedom Caucus members.”
Shorter House Republican leadership: We will take a turd sandwich as long as it’s a turd sandwich labeled Obamacare repeal. The big question, though, is whether Ryan and Meadows are right. There are a whole bunch of Republicans elected to the House by states that would be seriously screwed by Graham-Cassidy, some of whom might look at polling numbers and have second thoughts. Additionally, the Freedom Caucus can be an unpredictable bunch of extremist vandals, at least a few of whom might well do whatever is the opposite of making the perfect the enemy of the good—the truly despicable the enemy of the merely evil, or something like that.
But while nothing’s certain, there’s a damn good chance that, if Graham-Cassidy can make it through the Senate, it will also make it through the House. We need to be doing everything possible to stop it now.
Another Obamacare repeal bill?! It’s time to jam the congressional phone lines again. Call your senator at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to vote NO on any repeal bill. (After you call, please tell us how it went.)