Republicans' Obamacare repeal bill isn't quite completely dead yet, though it's definitely mostly dead. The Congress has just a handful of work days this month, and just those days under Senate rules to get it done with only Republican votes. Nonetheless, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), after dramatically casting the deciding vote to kill Obamacare repeal back in July, he's breathing life back into the effort now.
McCain said he backs a bill from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that would convert ObamaCare spending into block grants for states.
Asked if he supported it, McCain told reporters, "Yes. You think I wouldn't be?" [….]
McCain was one of three crucial Republican votes that killed the GOP repeal effort in July.
He at the time called repeatedly for the Senate to return to "regular order," meaning a bill would go through a committee first.
"If it's not through regular order than it's a mistake, but it doesn't mean I wouldn't vote for it," McCain said when asked about his previous statements.
So much for the principled maverick. Regular John McCain is back. Meanwhile, there is actual regular order happening in the Senate right now to stabilize Obamacare, with hearings happening this week to find a way to Trump-proof parts of the law. That—and the very tight schedule and the mound of work the Senate already has to do this month—argue against the possibility that this effort goes anywhere. Add to that the fact that the House Freedom Caucus is considering contributing to the Obamacare stabilization effort, and it's hard to see Graham-Cassidy going anywhere.
But they're still trying, and yeah, this is still a really bad, destructive bill that would cause millions to lose insurance and would decimate Medicaid in the future.
So we're doing this again. Call your senators at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to save health care for millions of Americans by voting NO on all Obamacare repeal bills.
Please give $1 to each of our Senate funds so that Republican senators know there'll be a price to pay for voting to repeal health care.