An hour into the Senate's vote-a-rama on amendments to the bill that sets up the budget resolution that will maybe repeal Obamacare, Republicans have rejected on a party-line basis an effort by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) to keep the provision of Obamacare that has closed the Medicare "donut-hole," saving seniors billions on prescription drugs. They also rejected Sen. Angus King's (I-ME) amendment that would prohibit insurance companies from denying benefits to people in certain supposedly high-risk occupations. So they're off to a typical and slow start. Democrats will stay with it all night if necessary, to prove their point
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) appealed to Republicans earlier Wednesday urging them to step back from their effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
"If Republicans go forward with this plan, they may mollify their base, but they will ostracize and hurt the American people, and ultimately lose in the court of public opinion," he said.
Schumer added that the current divisions among Republicans on how to repeal and replace ObamaCare to the "Abbot and Costello show", with both the Trump administration and congressional Republicans urging each other to bring up a repeal plan.
He's wrong. Abbot and Costello were funny. There's nothing funny about what Republicans are trying to do here.