Roll Call has details of one of the hold-ups on the Republican’s secretive tax cut for millionaires disguised as a health care plan. It comes as no surprise, but the party of “smaller government” is hung up on strictly governing women’s health care decisions. However, there was a surprising element:
Two abortion-related provisions in the House-passed bill that rewrites the U.S. health insurance system have been dropped from the Senate’s counterpart version, according to several lobbyists.
A number of GOP offices would not confirm whether those provisions are still in the legislation and several aides cautioned that the working draft is still undergoing multiple revisions and that those measures could still be included.
The provisions in question?
The two measures would effectively prohibit federal funding to Planned Parenthood for one year and prevent government health subsidies from being used on insurance plans that offer abortion coverage.
Rage. They are hung up on defunding one of the nation’s largest health care providers.
But, let’s get back to the part in bold, “according to several lobbyists.” The secretive bill that our elected representatives are not allowed to review, hold hearings on, seek input for, make amendments to, is apparently making the rounds among insurance industry lobbyists. The people who stand to financially gain are seeing the bill, possibly even writing it. Meanwhile, organizations representing the 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions have been locked out of any meetings with Mitch McConnell and Republican leadership:
“It is deeply disturbing,” said Erika Sward, assistant vice president of the American Lung Assn. “Patients groups like ours need to make sure that our patients’ needs for healthcare will be met. … We can’t do that if we can’t see what is being proposed.”
The lung association is among 120 patient groups that this week sent a letter to senior Republican senators expressing deep concerns about GOP proposals to fundamentally restructure Medicaid, which provides health coverage to more than 70 million poor Americans.
Mitch McConnell is in a backroom with insurance lobbyists writing a health care bill and is refusing to meet with or accept input from the AARP, the American Heart Association, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the American Lung Association, the American Diabetes Association, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American College of Physicians, the Vietnam Veterans of America and on and on and on. The official explanation for not meeting with any of these groups? McConnell's staffers said it was a scheduling issue. He has a number of events to collect those Swamp checks:
McConnell is indeed busy, according to Senate Republican calendars obtained by The Intercept. The Senate majority leader and other members of the Republican leadership will be occupied this week attending multiple high-dollar fundraising events.
McConnell is scheduled for a fundraising dinner at 6:30 p.m. on Monday at The Source, a Washington, D.C., restaurant. The event is listed by a Senate GOP fundraising group, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which advertises that individuals can be listed as a “host” of the event by contributing either $2,500 per political action committee or $1,000 per individual. The NRSC says the event was planned to benefit the election campaign of Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D.
Yesterday, three Democratic senators personally went to the Congressional Budget Office in search of a copy:
The three Democrats said they met with senior officials at the nonpartisan budget office but were unable to obtain a copy of any text under evaluation for its budgetary impacts. Republicans have not said whether they've given the CBO a copy of a full bill, but they have referred some ideas to the office for consideration.
It seems crystal clear that “The Swamp” Donald Trump spent nearly two years howling about are firmly seated at that backroom table with the Republican leadership and they are writing this bill. Mitch McConnell is colluding with insurance industry and Big Pharma lobbyists to increase their short term profits at the expense of the health and financial security of tens of millions of Americans. Why won’t they show us the bill? We know exactly why.
If the American people were allowed to see this bill before they vote, there would be monumental outrage nationwide from Republicans and Democrats alike. This cannot stand. This is not how our democracy is designed to work. The elected members of the United States Senate and the American people absolutely deserve to see what is in this bill and have adequate time to debate and amend it. It shouldn’t be a partisan issue.
Nevertheless, when Republicans are in charge, The Swamp gets what The Swamp wants. Look for this bill to pass after one more week of political theater and faux concern from the likes of Sen. Heller, Sen. Collins and other vulnerable senators up for re-election in 2018. McConnell will hand out a few calculated passes to select few senators so they can vote “no” and be able to go home and tell their constituents they stood up to their own party, but make no mistake about it, if McConnell needs their votes, they will be right there with him.
All we can do is spend the next 503 days doing everything we can to win back the House and start moving America forward again.