Senate Democrats not so sure it makes sense to fight Trumpcare, let's convince them

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday June 13, 2017 · 8:21 AM PDT

2017/06/13 · 08:21

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 10: U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) (R) speaks as Senate Minority Leader Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) (L) and Senate Minority Whip Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) listen during a news briefing after the Senate Democratic weekly luncheon January 10, 2017 at the Capitol in Washington, DC. Senate Democrats held their weekly luncheon to discuss the Democratic agenda. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) — Fight, Democratic "leaders." Fight.

Being in the opposition is hard, we get that. But it's not that hard. Particularly when it comes to Trumpcare—repealing the Affordable Care Act, destroying Medicaid, and kicking 24 million people off their health insurance. And damaging one-sixth of the national economy in the process. And yet:

The buzz today from Senate Ds offices is there is no chatter of withholding consent over AHCA, contra demands of @IndivisibleTeam/@MoveOn
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_Vox) June 12, 2017

No? Not even withholding consent on it? Um, why?

Ds also say withholding consent/grinding Senate to halt only delays vote by 1-2 weeks. Why risk having it backfire if meaningless anyway?
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_Vox) June 12, 2017

Well that’s just dumb on every level. When has the GOP not been unified in doing something really, truly, horrible in the McConnell tenure? Do they remember the unprecedented Merrick Garland Supreme Court blockade? It wasn’t all that long ago. Did any Republican senator stand up to say that was wrong?

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.

And delaying the vote by one to two weeks potentially does a great deal, particularly when one of those weeks is the July 4 recess, when all these Republicans (who aren’t hiding out) are at home facing angry constituents. Take it from here, Ezra Levin, founder of Indivisible:

"This is the obvious strategic choice: if your goal is to sink this bill, you want as much sunlight on this as possible. Anything that allows McConnell to swiftly get this through is a win for him. Democrats have some unilateral ability to slow down this process—and they should use that power as much as possible."

Look, it might be futile, but if Democrats don’t fight this with everything they have, if they don’t fight for 24 million people tooth and nail to the bitter end, then what are they there for? If the plight of 24 million of their constituents doesn’t convince, maybe the need to stand up for the institution of the Senate—for our essential democracy—which McConnell is destroying at every turn, will sway them.

Senate Democrats not so sure it makes sense to fight Trumpcare, let's convince them

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