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Veteran health reporter Julie Rovner is blown away by the news that Senate Republicans will not publicly release their version of Trumpcare prior to its reaching the Senate floor, which is supposed to happen as early as next week. "I have covered every major health bill in Congress since 1986," Rovner tweeted. "Have NEVER seen anything like this."
That's because it hasn't happened before. Among all the things that are abnormal about the Senate under Mitch McConnell is that he'll take on legislation that affects one-sixth of the nation's economy and will do it behind closed doors. He'll try to pass it for a president who might very well be a Russian mole. And like he did with his blockade of Merrick Garland, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, he'll do it as if this is just the way things are done. It's not, and Democrats can have only one response to it: blow the place up to demonstrate just how not normal all this is.
There isn't a whole lot they can do to keep this from happening, once McConnell has his 50 votes, and it's hard to imagine he's going to the floor without them. Democrats can try to exploit their personal relationships with Republican senators to talk them out of it, but that never works. Republicans have no shame. But they can make it as painful and as prolonged as possible. Since McConnell is doing this under budget reconciliation, the process that allows him to bypass a Democratic filibuster, it has to be opened to amendments. So Democrats have to make it painful for Republicans with all the amendments they can bring. David Waldman, Daily Kos's own legislative procedures guru, shared some ideas in email.
Thousands, if they can. And I guess I wouldn't spend much time thinking about whether they're germane or pass muster under reconciliation rules. Let the other guys figure that out. We just make them vote on it.
I mean, I guess if you really don't care about breaking the system—given how aggressive Republicans have been in breaking it, already—just come with literally thousands of amendments and keep writing them. Add a million dollars. Cut a million dollars. Add one dollar. Add TWO dollars. Add a dollar and 11 cents. Paint the entire state of Montana yellow. Whatever.
So let's help the Democrats come up with some amendments to this shitty bill. Get our best, or silliest, or most painful for Republicans ideas we can come up with and see if we can get them onto the floor in the Trumpcare vote-a-rama. And here's the chance for all you guys who have Democratic senators to make some calls.
Call your Democratic senator/s through the Capitol switchboard, 202-224-3121 and at their local offices and tell them you expect them to do everything in their power to make passing Trumpcare as painful as possible for Mitch McConnell and team.