The GOP Collaborators have advanced their plot to remove access to health care for tens of millions of Americans.
Here are the ringleaders:
Mitch McConnell
Mike Pence
John McCain
I don’t care what grave medical conditions any of these are diagnosed with, this is a dark day for America.
These three men are knowingly, intentionally, and casually killing millions of men, women and children. Killing them — just as surely as any fetus is killed, just as surely as any terminally ill baby dies when life support is removed. When parents withhold life-sustaining treatment from their children, we call that child abuse.
When these three men and their enablers take away health care from tens of millions of Americans in order to further enrich the already-wealthy, what shall we call it? I call it “murder”.
I don’t want to hear any platitudes or bleatings about sympathy. These three men are doing evil and immoral acts in the name of America.
Updated with reaction from Elizabeth Warren
It sounds as though Elizabeth Warren has pretty much the same reaction as me. Here is the text of the email she sent supporters this evening (emphasis mine):
Senate Republicans don’t exactly know how they’re going to rip health care away from tens of millions of Americans – but they voted for it anyway today.
This vote isn’t just irresponsible. It isn’t just reckless. It isn’t just cruel.
This vote is immoral. It goes against everything we stand for in this country – and everything we stand for as Americans.
But this fight isn’t over – not by a long shot. We still have time to stop the final passage of this bill. We can still stop the Republicans from gutting Medicaid and taking away millions of Americans’ health care so that America’s richest families can get a tax break.
We’re not going to whimper. We’re not going to whine. We’re going to fight back. All of us, including you, Thomas.
History will judge us for what happens in the United States Senate this week. This is the week we must prove: the Senate doesn’t just work for the billionaires and giant corporations, it doesn’t just work for the lawyers and lobbyists, and it doesn’t just work for one bought-and-paid-for political party – it works for the people.Speak out, make your voice heard, and persist.
Thanks for being a part of this,
You’re Tom. He’s Mike.
Vox has a good rundown of the various ways this is still *likely* to fail. Doesn’t change the fact that the flip floppers should hear from you, and your friends in their states. I’m having my sister in law in Cincy call Portmans office and Kasichs. Heller and Capito should get called too. Friends in PA already bombarding Toomey. Let Collins and Murkowski know to hold the line. This can still be beaten. This must be beaten.
Heh. Good catch — fixed.
I updated this, McCain made a bad vote today and his diagnosis doesn’t change that. The bad vote doesn’t change his diagnosis or how I feel about that either. Call the real deciders-his mind is made up on this.
McCain’s actions are fair game when he takes them.
I don’t mean to defend him on this vote, but is there a chance he will vote against the eventual bill? I can’t find anything definitive. I’ve read he can be bought off with goodies for Arizona. I’ve heard him speak ill of the bill.
Again, not making apologies for him. Just curious.
He said he’s a no on repeal in “it’s current form”, which means if they give him some Scottsdale Sweeteners, he may get to yes.
Update: he ended up voting for the Repeal and Replace bill anyway. Fortunately other Republicans did not, and it was nowhere near the 60 vote threshold the parliamentarian said it needed. It is likely a slightly different coalition will doom the clean repeal.
Vote tally for those curious.
One amazing thing about this process is that, with the grand exception of Trump himself, they’ve done nothing to advertise their alternative. They do have one, right?
9 Republicans voted against their own alternative, a mixture of moderates protecting their states from Medicaid cuts and conservatives who felt it kept too much of ACA in place. It is likely the same moderates will vote against a ‘clean repeal’, possibly joined by others who ‘reluctantly’ voted for this bill last night while Paul, Lee, and Moran defect to the ‘clean repeal’ side. Either way their alternative has already failed, and a full repeal is likely to fail, leaving them with no Plan C.
The only other one floated is one that would remove the mandate, repeal the medical device tax, and leave the rest of ACA in place. Ironically Sen. Obama’s ‘Obamacare’ in 2008. This too is unlikely to pass, but if it did, the collapse of the markets would rest squarely on the GOP’s shoulders. A possibility that also makes a public option or single payer health care reform far more likely, and frankly, a necessity next time we are in charge.
What Democrats in DC need to repeat, over and over again when interviewed by the press is this:
The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare is faltering NOT because of government protection of our citizens from faulty markets, as we hear from our Republican colleagues, It is faltering because markets are unable to serve the American people with adequate health care and the solution to failing markets is NOT more markets. The solution is Medicare for all and the elimination of failed markets.
I am with Sen. Sanders who eloquently defended the ACA yesterday on the floor and in a speech to the NAACP while also passionately pushing for America to do so much more. That’s the right strategy, hold, and then, push. One more vote tonight and let’s stand united against repeal.
I’ve got perfectly good health care over here in the UK. Doot doot!
Sincerely,
Sincerely,
Sincerely,
this cute picture of Thomas the Tank Engine, which apparently stomv can’t seem to embed in the comment.
The new site acrhitecture seemingly has a very good “cheekiness” filter.