The Senate parliamentarian has ruled out another part of the plan Senate Republicans have for their skinny repeal/Trumpcare proposal. The provision saying states could waive Obamacare's essential health benefits regulations is nixed.
If it's going to happen, it's going to have to get 60 votes—and that’s not going to happen. So, if they want to keep those waivers and undo regulations, which the hard-right extremists like Sens. Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz insist on ending, they've got to figure out a radically different way of doing it.
Or McConnell blows up the Senate again, as the extremists have been goading him to do for months. He could ask the Senate president—in this case Vice President Pence, who would be in the chair when the bill came up—to overrule the parliamentarian. But then the Senate would have to vote on it, and McConnell would have to get 50 of his colleagues to agree to it. He's perfectly capable of trying it, but whether those colleagues will be with him after all of this is a big question
JAM THE PHONE LINES. Call your Senator at (202) 224-3121 and tell them repealing Obamacare is SICK, MEAN and CRUEL. (After you call, please tell us how it went.)