Democratic senators on Thursday harshly criticized their Republican colleagues’ newly unveiled health care bill, warning that GOPers would “own the consequences” of repealing Obamacare and urging the public to read the proposal and to question their Republican representatives about it.
“I thought it wouldn’t be possible for the Senate Republicans to conjure up a bill even worse than that one. Unfortunately, that is what they have done,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a press conference after the bill was publicly released for the first time. In a speech on the Senate floor minutes after the bill’s release, Schumer had said the Senate bill is “every bit as bad as” the House GOP’s version.
“Surely we can do better than what the Republican health care bill promises,” he told reporters. “Every American should be asking their Republican senators one simple question this weekend — why do the wealthy deserve a tax cut more than we deserve health care?”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), speaking after Schumer, said Republican senators have “done everything possible to prevent people from seeing” the legislation.
“No hearings, no scrutiny, no public input,” she said.
Murray called the secretive drafting process “truly unprecedented” and said “it’s clear why.”
“Because they did promise to lower health care costs, and this plan will actually raise them, especially for seniors and those with preexisting conditions,” she said.
The drafting process of the so-called working group involved in writing the bill was so secretive that rank-and-file Senate Republicans were just as in the dark about the legislation as their Democratic colleagues until the public release of the bill on Thursday morning. More than one lawmaker expressed frustration about the closed-door process of the 13 Republican senators tasked with drafting the legislation.
Murray urged people to “read the fine print” of the bill.
“The Senate Republican Trumpcare plan is every bit as bad as the version patients and families rejected in the House,” she said. “If Republicans jam through this plan, they will own the consequences.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said Republican senators “basically doubled down on everything that the American people rejected the first time around.”
“Senate Republicans are trying to con Americans into thinking that they are fixing problems here when in fact what they’re doing is causing new ones,” he said.
The bill unveiled by Senate Republicans on Thursday would eliminate most of Obamacare’s subsidies and impose deeper long-term cuts to Medicaid than the House version, cutting government assistance for health coverage and leaving states to make up the difference.
Wyden said “what’s clear” is that “Senate Republicans are going to keep telling Americans they’re fixing their health care right up until the second when it gets taken away.”
Now that’s some simple, effective messaging - this is encouraging to see. Too often Dem’s public messaging gets bogged down in policy details that aren’t easily consumed by the public, or they get put on the defensive by constantly responding to Republican attacks and lies.
The secret to left/moderate political success is simple: clear, easy-to-digest messaging and consistent, constant reinforcement of this messaging. This applies to criticism of the GOP as well as pushing their own policies.
Those are the nails. So very glad to see them being hammered.
Indeed why to the wealthy deserve a tax cut at the expense of health care for the poor, elderly, and disabled. Let’s not forget the caps on employer based insurance. If you get cancer or have a catastrophic medical event, you will get to the cap very quickly.
People will die under the Republican bill, who would not have under Obamacare. People will get serious illnesses under the Republican bill who would not have–or would have had them cured–with Obamacare. People who will be able to keep their health insurance will get sick or die under this bill, because they will catch diseases from people who lose their health insurance under the Republican bill.
More questions?
Oh please…after the Democrats lost FOUR special elections and there is hardly any coverage of people hitting the town halls in rage, the GOP’s answer is a long, loud laugh/
Hey, Chuck, do you really think that the same people who voted for Drumpf will give a rat’s ass about your poster that says the bill is “mean”? Drumpf voters and the GOP are entirely unconcerned with anyone but themselves. In fact, they’d love to see poor people and people of color die in the streets; don’t think I’m kidding. These are not good people. If the bill is cruel to poor people, that’s a feature, not a bug. But a bigger issue is the fact that Democrats somehow LOST THE FUCKING ELECTION to someone as horrible, as unqualified and as unhinged as DONALD FUCKING TRUMP. Go figure that one out, Chuck, and maybe we progressives/liberals will feel like there’s someone with balls leading the Democratic Party.