We begin today’s roundup with Margaret Hartmann’s analysis at New York Magazine on today’s vote on the GOP’s tax cuts for the wealthy/health insurance plan, and specifically, the return of Senator John McCain to the floor for the crucial vote:
On Tuesday the Senate will vote on the American Health Care Act, which is the first step in their last-ditch effort to do … something to Obamacare this week. In a matter of days Senate Republicans may pass a bill that affects one fifth of the economy and millions of Americans’ lives, and incredibly, they have no idea what it might look like. [...] McCain’s hasty return signals that the Republican leadership thinks they’re close to the 50 votes needed. He may wind up being the senator who revived Zombie Trumpcare one last time. [...]
If this were a movie, Tuesday would be the moment when McCains reclaims his reputation as a legendary “maverick.” After a passionate speech on the Senate floor about what his own tragic illness taught him about the importance of reliable health care, he would look McConnell straight in the eye and vote “no” on the motion to proceed.
Those who don’t want to see millions lose their health coverage for purely political purposes can dream, but recent events suggest that’s not the movie we’re living in.
Michael Hiltzik at The Los Angeles Times explains why McConnell’s last minute Medicaid sweetener is all show:
The sweetener is a $200-billion fund for the 31 states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, to be paid out starting in 2022. Since the GOP bill would eliminate the Medicaid expansion, the ostensible idea is to help them cushion health insurance costs for those states and their Medicaid enrollees forced to transition to the ACA’s individual insurance exchanges. [...] Few objective analysts think the $200 billion fund would provide much of a cushion, since the measure published by the Senate GOP — known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act — would cut more than $700 billion out of federal Medicaid funding over 10 years. But the new study, released Monday by the Urban Institute, finds that the $200 billion would cover those transition costs for barely two years.
Jessica Schorr Saxe, a Charlotte physician calls it for what it is — a tax cut bill:
What do you call a bill that provides hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthy – by taking health care away from other Americans?
It should be called a tax cut bill for the rich, disguised as the “Better Care Reconciliation Act” (BCRA), which has nothing to do with providing care. [...]
The BCRA has been compared to Robin Hood-in-reverse, stealing from the poor to give to the rich. It reminds me of another hood, Little Red Riding, who expected to find Grandma in bed, but instead discovered a wolf wearing Grandma’s bonnet.
Contact your senators to vote against the motion to proceed. If the bill reaches the floor, tell them to vote against it. Any Obamacare replacement bill should help more people, not fewer. No more hoodwinking the American people.
