Campaign Action
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's strategy to force his Senate Republicans in to a rushed vote on a really shitty Trumpcare bill has failed—so far. He wanted a vote before this week, and didn't get it, but he's still trying to make it happen when the Senate returns next week. He could fail again, and if he does it will be because of us, because of a groundswell of grassroots anger an action against the bill.
McConnell has a basic math problem. He's got 52 senators and needs 50 of them, plus the vote of Vice President Mike Pence, to get this passed under the budget reconciliation process. Among those 52 senators, there are so many competing agendas that the formula to get 50 might not exist. Vox's Dylan Scott broke down the divisions among the 14 most vocal senators opposing the bill, demonstrating how much of a puzzle it's going to be for McConnell.
If the majority leader pulls the health care legislation toward one side, he risks alienating the other end of the spectrum. The two posses are tugging the bill in opposite directions on the bill’s Medicaid cuts. More moderate senators want to keep some Obamacare taxes; conservatives say they ran on repealing all of the law’s taxes. Conservatives want to roll back all of the law’s insurance regulations; moderates are more skittish about unwinding the popular protections for people with preexisting medical conditions. […]
This is the Rubik’s cube, as McConnell is said to describe it, that the majority leader must solve.
His toughest gets are Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) who says she's opposed to just about everything in it, and Lisa Murkowski. The two of them are opposed to the Medicaid cuts, changes in protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and the Planned Parenthood defunding. Collins additionally is opposed to some of the big tax cuts for the wealthy in it, along with Bob Corker (TN), Mike Rounds (SD), and Ron Johnson. But there are four others on the other side of the tax issue—the ones who basically want total repeal now: Rand Paul (KY), Ted Cruz (TX), Mike Lee (UT), and Pat Toomey (PA). There are five senators who have complained along with Collins about the extremity of the Medicaid cuts, but two who want those cuts to be even more extreme. There are three who want more protection for people with pre-existing conditions, but four who want the bill to just gut all of that, too.
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.
Answering the five extremists' wish list could lose McConnell more than just the nine who've complained that the bill needs to be moderated—if pre-existing condition protections are left out, for example. But if McConnell has to answer to the nine more moderates, he could lose the extremists who are more unified in opposing making any part of the law less horrible for actual people.
Which makes the delay extremely helpful to us. Plenty of senators are completely avoiding facing their constituents this week, but their absence on the public scene can work against them, too. This is the week to inundate their offices with phone calls, with visits, and with protests. If you can't talk to your senator, maybe you'll get a chance to talk to the local media about why they’re too cowardly to show up.