Hi folks. We still don’t know what’s in the Senate ACA repeal, for reasons that appear to be largely cynical (aka “we know the bill is bad, so we don’t want anyone to know about it.”)
I’ve been working on this with daily calls to my Senators, but today I saw a new tool from Indivisible for US folks with Dem and/or GOP Senators, to weigh in about ACA, and I wanted to share it here in case it is useful.
If you have Republican Senators: It gives you space to tell them you’re opposed to the repeal (and/or how you’d like to see the repeal change, and/or telling them to bring the bill out in the open).
If you have Democrat/Independant Senators: It creates an amendment for them to use in a Filibuster by Amendment action. (Filibuster by Amendment is delaying a vote by offering many amendments, since offering essentially limitless amendments is allowed for bills to be passed via reconciliation, which applies here).
There’s a wide range of opinions about how we should make healthcare in the USA better, but I think we can probably agree that the way the Senate GOP is pushing this bill (in secret, no hearings, limited debate, fast-tracked) is irresponsible.
The bill will most likely be released tomorrow with a vote held by the end of next week. The secretive process behind this bill is unprecedented. Congress will keep creating bills in secret if this passes with no public outcry. Please please please call your senators and demand some sort of action.
Please keep calling. This would lower the quality of healthcare for all Americans, due to allowing employers to cut off employee care with spending caps. That’s on top of really intense threats to poor Americans, disabled Americans, and older Americans.
We can stop this. AHCA lost once in the House, and we can stop it in the Senate.
The stakes are high. I’m from CT so both my senators are Democrats, but I’m going to make sure to call them and give them a heads up that this is not the time for compromise, not if they don’t want to get primaried. Kind of an empty threat but I’m gonna make it.
The GOP delaying the vote until after recess means we have time to attend rallies, time to ask for meetings at district offices, protest at district offices, write op-eds to local newspapers, and much more. The House bill was delayed like this once, then came back and passed after it was modified to appease the Freedom Caucus.
We’ve made the GOP falter, now it’s time to press the advantage.
Today we’re back to crunch time on the Healthcare vote in the US. Please make time to call or email your Senator to tell them to vote NO on a Motion to Proceed. That motion would activate debate on the bill.
Some context for what’s going on right now, because it’s super-confusing even for folks who are spending too much time trying to pay attention to this:
First up - which bill are they voting on?
We don’t know.
Senator McConnell is, once more, being a conniving asshole, because he’s not saying which bill. He wants to strongarm people into voting to proceed to debate, and then figure out which version of the bill to vote on during debate. Which means Senators don’t even know for sure which version is being discussed, nor do the American People, aka The people the Senators are supposed to represent and be beholden to.
It’s the latest escalation in an unprecedently cynical and dangerous process by Senator McConnell where the only rule is Do What You Can Get Away With in order to take healthcare away from tens of millions of people. Why? Because he can, because he wants a win, and because the GOP is so dead-set on undoing the legacy of President Obama that they’re willing to endanger millions of Americans just to score a “win.”
No version of the replace bills have polled above ~20% approval. Medical associations and the AARP have both come out strongly against the major versions of the repeal, and every version that has been scored by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says that 14 million or more people will lose health insurance. Most versions that were scored will have 22-24 million or more people lose health insurance. It’s monstrous.
Please call, or write (emails in order to be read today), or use Resistbot to fax.
