Many of the 10 Democratic senators who hold seats in red states started off the year on a note of compromise, signaling a willingness to work with Donald Trump on things like an infrastructure bill. But thanks to the GOP's ploy of ramming Obamacare repeal through Congress using reconciliation rules that require only majority support in the Senate, they've said good-bye to all that collegiality.
One by one, every one of those senators flayed Republicans for hanging women and seniors out to dry, cutting Medicaid coverage for millions and kneecapping pre-existing conditions coverage, writes Elana Schor:
That unity stems from a Democratic belief that the GOP repeal bid is backfiring, making Obamacare more popular. [...]
“So far the attitude’s been ‘take it or leave it’,” North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp said in an interview. “And I think that’s not really an invitation to negotiate.”
Heitkamp isn’t taking it. Nor is Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, which went for Trump by 20 points:
“The House is forcing seniors to pay more, jeopardizing health care for Montana women, and failing to address the rising costs that are draining pocketbooks,” he said in a statement. [...]
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said Thursday at a POLITICO Playbook event that 172,000 people in his deep-red state got insurance for the first time under Obamacare. “They don’t know how they got it, they don’t know who gave it to them,” he said he told Trump, before warning, “They’re going to know who took it away from them.”
And Florida Sen. Bill Nelson:
“I would not want to be a Republican senator who was voting to severely cut Medicaid,” Nelson told reporters.
Looks like Republicans and Republicans alone will own this monstrosity, whatever dreadful form it takes.