WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats plan to slow the Senate’s work, force votes and make late-night speeches in an effort to focus attention on how Republicans are crafting legislation revamping the nation’s health care system behind closed doors, a senior Democratic aide said Monday.
The effort comes with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., hoping to weave together a bill dismantling much of former President Barack Obama’s health care law so the Senate can vote on it before leaving for its July 4 recess.
Republicans have held no committee meetings or votes on the measure, which McConnell is trying to produce from numerous private meetings among GOP senators.
Democrats, who solidly oppose the Republican effort but lack the votes to block it, are trying to capitalize on the secrecy and contrast it with the numerous committee meetings and votes that produced the 2010 statute.
McConnell will need to win the votes of 50 of the 52 GOP senators to push the bill through the Senate. It remains unclear if he’ll be able to write legislation that will attract enough votes.
Republicans are writing their measure privately “because they’re ashamed of it,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a written statement.
“If Republicans won’t relent and debate their health care bill in the open for the American people to see, then they shouldn’t expect business as usual in the Senate,” Schumer said.
A spokesman for McConnell declined to comment.
A senior Democratic aide said the effort will begin Monday evening.
It will include trying to force votes aimed at drawing attention to the lack of transparency, such as committee hearings, on the GOP legislation.
The aide said Democrats will begin slowing work on bills by refusing to let the Senate bypass time-consuming procedural steps, which it customarily does on most legislation. Democratic senators will also make floor speeches late Monday on the subject.
The GOP-run House narrowly approved its version of the legislation last month.
President Donald Trump privately called the House bill “mean” last week. Senate Republicans are expected to ease some of its cuts to Medicaid, the health care program for the poor, and make other changes.
I wouldn’t have thought that Congress moving slower was even possible under the laws of physics…
Some senator ought to insert an amendment to reduce or strip out all Black Lung benefits from this so called health care bill. McConnell’s head would spin like a top.
Even if the Democrats manage to draw attention to and get media coverage of the GOP’s undemocratic tactics, that will not stop McConnell from holding a vote. He has already made the decision that the voting public does not care about process so the GOP majorities will not suffer any electoral consequences, a theory he tested with his unprecedented refusal to consider the Garland nomination. GOP voters have no problem with things being rammed down their throats so long as the rammer is not a black Democrat.
H a v e y o u e v a h s e e n s a p f l o w f r o m a t r e e ?
McConnell gets to approve what amendments, if any, are allowed for the bill. That’s the whole point of doing it in secret, under reconciliation rules, and under a rule that allows him to bring the bill to the floor and call for an immediate vote.
Gotta cut taxes on the rich somehow.
Btw, if they’re going to make the cuts to medicaid less draconian, that means they’re going to have to extract a similar amount of money from some other constituency, or else reduce the volume of tax cuts (ha).