Maybe it's because their lives are full of political uncertainty with all the deal-making Trump is doing with Democrats, and they need to retrench to something familiar. Maybe it's because they are just horrible people who want to see people suffer. Whatever the reason, Senate Republicans are seriously trying to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the absolute worst thing they've come up with yet: block grants. The brainchild of Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy now has Nevada’s Dean Heller and Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson on board as sponsors.
They are absolutely trying to make it move now. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has officially requested a score of it from the Congressional Budget Office. He is reportedly whipping it and attempting to get support by telling people that Sen. John McCain supports it, because the maverick McCain was only bullshitting everyone back in July when he said he was going to insist that any more repeal efforts go through regular order.
This won't go through regular order because there isn't time for that—because they only have until the end of the month (eight working days as of now) to do it. The only way the Senate could pass this without subjecting it to a Democratic filibuster is by pushing it through a process called budget reconciliation. Republicans gave themselves a deadline of Sept. 30 to get this done, arrogantly thinking that they could do in six months what they weren't able to do in seven years: come up with a replacement for Obamacare.
But they've got a trick up their sleeves this time to get Republican senators on board.
JAM THE PHONE LINES. Call your Senator at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to just stop playing with our lives. (After you call, please tell us how it went.)
Yep. Bribery. Right now Cassidy is saying he has as many as 49 votes. He could be completely blowing smoke, trying to convince the rest of his conference that there's enough momentum for them to jump on board. Right now, there's only one declared no vote, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, but we've seen time and time again his staunch opposition to things melting away once someone pays enough attention to him. Maine Sen. Susan Collins—one of the three who torpedoed the last effort—is undecided, saying she has to see what it will do to Planned Parenthood. McCain isn't saying, but he's not contradicting McConnell, who says he supports it. Sen. Lisa Murkowski—the third of the trio that killed it in July—hasn't said anything.
Getting it done by the end of the month is still a long shot because it is just going to take time. The House is out all of next week, and they are probably not going to look kindly upon this being dumped on them when they return. They would almost certainly have to swallow it whole, and they're not very good at doing that. Additionally, conservative groups like Heritage Action are opposing it, which will have sway with House conservatives.
The CBO score on this is going to be as bad, if not worse, than it was for all the other Trumpcare bills, so those 48 or 49 senators Cassidy says he has now could change their minds. Or not. Apparently CBO scores showing millions of people losing healthcare doesn't really do much to influence Republicans these days, or they wouldn't have gotten as close as they did last time. This is all to say that there's a credible threat that they're going to do this next week, unless we stop it. Again.
JAM THE PHONE LINES. Call your Senator at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to just stop playing with our lives. (After you call, please tell us how it went.)