Campaign Action
If you only read Politico, you'd believe that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was following a slow, measured path to getting Trumpcare done, getting all his ducks in a row within the Republican caucus, some of whom are still resisting and negotiating. You'd believe the current headline, "Senate GOP reins in expectations for killing Obamacare." That's because McConnell is sending out his lackeys to tell you that, that they possibly won't be able to have the vote this month and if they do, it might not succeed.
"It's like having a baby," said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas). "It's not here yet, but it's coming." […]
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 3 GOP leader, said the June vote time frame is “an aspiration” but not a hard deadline. CBO is expected to take two to three weeks to complete its work on the bill, though Republicans are already exchanging language with the organization.
“A lot of it is just getting stuff drafted and scored is a challenge. It’s all process now,” Thune said. […]
“Next month is my prediction. I just think it’s something we have to do before we leave for August,” Cornyn said in an interview. “You saw the House. It took them a couple of tries. Hopefully we’ll do it on the first try.”
Right. But here's what's really going on, buried down in the final paragraphs of the story.
“Mitch says we’re going to vote,” said a Republican senator. Even if that vote fails “most of us would rather have that vote and go home and say, ‘Hey, I voted to repeal.' Or the handful that don’t can say, ‘It wasn’t good enough for our state.'”
Call your Democratic senator/s through the Capitol switchboard, 202-224-3121 and at their local offices and tell them you expect them to do everything in their power to make passing Trumpcare as painful as possible for Mitch McConnell and team.
Mitch says this bill is coming to the floor and wants it before the recess, before senators go home and are confronted by angry constituents and possibly swayed against it. It's that simple. It's what's behind all the secrecy, behind the refusal to have hearings or release the bill to the public. He needs to do this before public anger can really be mobilized against him.
If you don't think there's a full-court press going on here, look who's going to the White House for lunch Tuesday: "Sens. Rob Portman (Ohio), John Thune (S.D.), Pat Toomey (Pa.), Mike Lee (Utah), Ted Cruz (Texas), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), John Barrasso (Wyo.), Cory Gardner (Colo.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine), Joni Ernst (Iowa) and Orrin Hatch (Utah)." That's the core of the members who are always included in stories about how McConnell can't bring his caucus together—Lee and Cruz on the far right, Murkowski and Collins on the slightly less right. Throw in the people who might still be worried about Medicaid expansion—Gardner, Alexander, Cotton, and Toomey—and everyone who could be a problem is going to be hammered by Trump today. Because for some reason congressional Republicans are still working with Trump.