The fun on the healthcare merry-go-round never stops. And now the GOP is seeing the one thing that McConnell wanted to avoid with all of his secret bill writing, and minimal debate, no fooling around is going to happen. MSNBC is reporting, and multiple GOP Senators have confirmed by their comments to the media that their will be no healthcare vote this week.
This is only going to make getting the bill passed more difficult, exactly the thing McConnell wanted to avoid. According to MSNBC reporting, traditional wisdom is that for a controversial bill like this, going home for a long July 4th break will expose Senators to more feedback from their constituents. No more staffers handling the phones, if they go into a food store to get a gallon of milk they’re going to get an earful. The parking lot at church is not going to be a very christian place to be. Trump has summoned all 52 GOP Senators to the White House for a 4:00 EDT skull session and smackdown.
McConnell had already indicated that if the bill wasn’t passed by the break, they would have no choice upon return than to start to negotiate with Shumer and the Democrats. Can McConnell actually get the Democrats to buy in, and will he actually use any of their input to craft the bill? Somehow or other I tend to doubt ir, and it may not matter. The Republicans decided to die on this hill, and there is no real reason for the Democrats to administer CPR, unless they are satisfied that the legislation will “fix”, and not “repeal and gut” the bill.
With the announcement being made this early, I believe that it became clear to Yertl the Turtle that he didn’t have enough voted to even pass the procedural vote hurdle to bring it to the floor. To lose the bill on a passage vote would be bad enough, to have it fail to even get to the floor would be fatal.
Whatever the reason, this is a crippling blow for both McConnell and Trump. Both have been belligerent about doing this by themselves, like a 4 y.o. wanting to pour their own milk, with a similar mess as a result. And even worse, the almighty Senate can now have shit thrown on them by the lowly House, after all, however bad, the House at least managed to pass a bill. I even heard a GOP congressman on MSNBC yesterday saying that McConnell should just call the House bill for a vote already.
This is not a pardon, it’s a reprieve. Now it’s up to each and every one of us to make sure that every GOP Senator in the country has the shittiest July 4th holiday ever. make it a living hell. Show them pictures of healthy children and grandchildren. That could always change, and they would desperately need coverage. Show them your appendectomy scars, and tell them it saved your life. Do whatever it takes to make sure that if and when the vote finally comes there are at least three solid “No’s” waiting for them.
Tuesday, Jun 27, 2017 · 6:38:38 PM +00:00
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Murfster35
Desperation is starting to set in for GOP Senators. There was one report that indicated that the Democrats have said that they will not lift a finger unless “repeal” is off the table. A GOP Senator just said that it would be impossible to repair Obamacare without repealing at least some portions of it. Last time I checked, removing some parts of a law and inserting corrective measures was called “fixing” a bill, but with their own bill on life support, the Republicans will call changing a colon into a semi colon repealing the colon just to get that word into the conversation.