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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's decision to delay a vote on his Trumpcare bill brought out a wave of "I'm opposed to this bill" from some surprising quarters. Like Kansas's Jerry Moran, who is not anywhere near even moderate in his politics, but says the "bill missed the mark for Kansans and therefore did not have my support." Less surprisingly, Shelley Moore Capito (WV) tweets that it "doesn’t do enough to combat opioid epidemic, cuts traditional Medicaid too deeply, harms rural health care providers." She has three heavy lifts she's laying down as her line, so that's a big deal.
Susan Collins (ME), too, is saying she's not going to budge, whatever they do with the bill, telling reporters after McConnell announced his delay, "It’s difficult for me to see how any tinkering is going to satisfy my fundamental and deep concerns about the impact of the bill." Rob Portman (OH) is opposed to this version but expresses his willingness to keep working. Nevada's Dean Heller has been pretty mum. Alaska's Lisa Murkowski says she's ready to start working with Democrats on a whole new bill.
So with that in mind, check out who had to sit next to popular vote loser Donald Trump in the hastily-convened White House meeting, which is still going on.
There's Heller, Collins, and Murkowski planted right there by Trump, and not looking so thrilled at the proximity. Trump might not be providing the pep talk McConnell was hoping for. "If we don't get it done it's just going to be something that we're not going to like and that's OK," he told the senators while reporters were still in the room. It could be an entirely different message once the doors were closed, but that doesn't sound like he's particularly engaged.
McConnell's new plan, by the way, is to have a revisions made and the bill ready to go back to the CBO by Friday. That's not a lot of time for a balance to be struck here.
Make your Republican Senator feel the heat. Call their office EVERY DAY at (202) 224-3121 to demand that they say NO to ripping health care away from millions of Americans. No on Trumpcare. Then, tell us how it went.
