They’re not there yet, but Senate Republicans are working hard to get from 49 to 50 votes to pass Graham-Cassidy, their latest plan to strip health coverage from tens of millions of people and rob still-insured people of important protections. That means it’s time—again—to call your senator and urge him or her not to be the 50th vote that enables Mike Pence to once again show off his special smug tie-breaking smile.
On Friday, Cassidy told reporters his bill has support from as many as 48 or 49 Republicans. “I’m confident we’ll get there on the Republican side,” he said. “People are coming out and saying they are for it, either publicly or privately.”
Confident they’ll get there means they aren’t there yet, but consider who’s standing in the way. Sen. John McCain voted against “skinny repeal” in July, dooming that bill, but he hasn’t ruled out voting for Graham-Cassidy—and it’s noteworthy that Sen. Lindsey Graham is one of McCain’s closest allies in the Senate. Sen. Rand Paul is loudly opposing Graham-Cassidy from the right, tweeting that “I can’t support a bill that keeps 90% of Obamacare in place”—but we’ve all seen Paul’s posturing enough times to know that there’s a very good chance he falls in line after getting some token concession he can wave around as if it’s a major win.
In short, there’s a real danger that Republicans can scrape together the votes to let Pence be the tie-breaker. We have to take this seriously. But it’s also not a sure thing—we have a good chance to keep them from passing this latest effort to hurt us.
We haven’t won the battle to save health care yet. Republicans are STILL pushing to repeal Obamacare. Call your senators at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to vote “NO” on any repeal bill. (After you call, please tell us how it went.)