July 5 UPDATE: Not much to report beyond urging you all to keep the pressure on your senators, and urging you to ask your friends to do so. More when we have it.
On July 2, Topher Spiro tweeted:
1: ALERT: McConnell just sent a revised bill to CBO. They’re close to a deal. This is CODE RED.
…and included a link to this Axios story:
https://www.axios.com/senate-asks-for-cbo-score-with-without-cruz-proposal-2451585212.html
Here also relevant text from a Topher Spiro tweetstorm from the same day:
Vote expected in mid-July. Republican staff reportedly told lobbyists “The store is open”—meaning they think they can buy off moderates.
If these moderates don’t feel the heat over recess, guess what? They’ll cave in no time. Remember how weak Cassidy was? [He means Bill Cassidy of Louisiana]
This revised bill is probably McConnell’s last shot. He has no time for CBO to score one after this. EVERYTHING RIDES ON THIS.
Happy Fourth! Protesting Trumpcare this week is the pinnacle of democracy and patriotism.
MORAN—who is currently a no—is the only Senator holding town halls. SPREAD THE WORD.
HELLER is perhaps the most important vote.
Here’s where HELLER will be during recess. Parade in Ely, NV anyone?
The larger point is the AHCA is not dead yet. This horror movie is not over. Call your senators. Keep the pressure up.
It’s especially important to call if any of these people are your senators:
Susan Collins of Maine
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
Rob Portman of Ohio
Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia
Cory Gardner of Colorado
Dean Heller of Nevada
Bill Cassidy of Louisiana
Jeff Flake of Arizona (but wish him condolences–his father died June 26)
Dan Sullivan of Arkansas
Bob Corker of Tennessee
Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
Richard Shelby of Alabama
Luther Strange of Alabama
Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin
See https://trumpcaretoolkit.org for phone numbers and tweetable statistics about health care coverage loss in these senators’ states.
If your senators are solid Dems, call and thank them for standing firm against the AHCA.
If your senators are Republicans, call call call call call. Find out which July 4 events they might attend in your community and show up with protest signs.
June 28 2017 UPDATE. So, the GOP is postponing the vote in the Senate on the AHCA until after the July 4 recess. Five Republican Senators have said they won’t support it, and 48 + 5 = dead bill.
See this Washington Post piece to that effect:
Seems like good news.
But we here at OTYCD are not buying it.
The death of the AHCA in the house was greatly exaggerated. That hot mess of a bill left the house after its members were pushed to vote before the new CBO score came in. They did, and a scant four nudged that malfunctioning heap of rubble over the top and into the Senate.
Speaker Paul Ryan is as feckless as they come, but he got the ‘dead’ AHCA through the house by violating the norm of not voting before the CBO score came in. Mitch McConnell is as capable as Ryan is feckless.
We do not trust that nothing will happen on the AHCA in the Senate in the days leading up to the July 4 recess.
Sure, greet the news of the postponement with joy, but REDOUBLE YOUR EFFORTS TO CALL AND OPPOSE THE AHCA.
Do. Not. Let. Up. At. All.
Keep calling.
If it’s a weekend day, leave voicemails. Fax. Send email. If there’s an anti-AHCA protest near you, go.
Keep calling your senators every goddamn day to say no to the AHCA until we get to the Congressional recess. If we actually get there without a vote, THEN you can take a break.
If any of these senators represent you, it is extra-super-mega-urgent that you call, call, call.
Susan Collins of Maine
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
Rob Portman of Ohio
Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia
Cory Gardner of Colorado
Dean Heller of Nevada
Bill Cassidy of Louisiana
Jeff Flake of Arizona (but wish him condolences–his father died Monday)
JUNE 2017 UPDATE. It’s the last week of June. The Senate version of the AHCA has been released. It’s terrible. Republican senators are wavering. This is our last best chance to kill the bill.
For this reason we have cleared the OTYCD decks for the week of every new queued post, except for extra-time-sensitive ones, and we’re reposting calls to action on the AHCA. It’s that important.
Call your Dem Senators, thank them for standing strong against the AHCA, and tell them you have their backs if they play hardball.
Call your Republican senators and tell them you will spend time and money getting their opponents elected if they vote yes on the AHCA. And mean it. Be ready to uphold your pledge.
Call your friends and tell them to call and oppose the AHCA. All this week. Please.
Original text of this post follows.
Are your senators solid Democrats? Ask them to stop the AHCA by playing hardball to combat the furtive, anti-democratic way their Republican colleagues wrote the bill.
The Senate Democrats are united in opposition to the AHCA, the bill that the Republicans intend to replace the ACA, but that doesn’t mean much when they don’t control the senate. The Republicans are showing their colors by tackling the smoking heap of malfunctioning rubble sent over by the House in secret.
It should be illegal to secretly write a bill that remakes one-sixth of the country’s economy and takes away the health insurance of as many as 23 million people, but it isn’t.
The Senate Democrats can do something to protest the anti-democratic actions of the Republicans, however, and you should call and urge them to do it. The Democrats can grind the business of the Senate to a halt. It’s called withholding consent, and doing so makes it damn near impossible to carry through the day-in, day-out work of the Senate.
You might ask, why are the Dems holding back? Why haven’t they moved to withhold consent already? Well, withholding consent is a hardball tactic. It’s not nice. It’s not mannered. It’s using the Senate’s own rules as a weapon. In short, it’s the sort of thing that Mitch McConnell would do. And in the wake of the shooting at the Republican practice for the Congressional baseball game, Democrats are loathe to break the bipartisan let’s-come-together aura.
But, again. The Senate Republicans are working to kill Obamacare in secret. They’re doing it in secret because they know damn well that at least 80 percent of the country would rise up in anger and rain that anger on their heads, individually and collectively. It’s the sort of act that justifies the serious step of withholding consent.
You need to call, and keep calling, to oppose the AHCA, and you need to urge your friends all over the country to keep calling, too.
Now, if your senators are Republican? You know what to do. Call them, call them, call them, and voice your opposition to the AHCA, and specifically voice your opposition to their writing the bill in secret.
If your Republican Senator is one of the 13 men (yes, they’re all men) in the group that’s rewriting the bill behind closed doors, it is extra-important for you to call, call, call, every damn day. See this link and scroll down to the Dylan Scott tweet to see their names:
https://www.bustle.com/p/the-13-senators-working-on-the-health-care-bill-are-all-men-56291
If your senators are Democrats, here is a script to use when you call:
“Dear Senator (Lastname), I am (Firstname Lastname), and I am calling to voice my support for you if you choose to withhold consent for Senate business over the way in which your Republican colleagues are handling the AHCA bill. Working behind closed doors on a law that would, if passed, affect one-sixth of our economy and take health insurance away from as many as 23 million people is unconscionable, and it calls for action. I want you to know that if you choose to withhold consent, and choose to slow or stop the business of the Senate in protest over the way in which the AHCA is being written, I fully support you, and you will have my vote the next time you’re up for re-election.”
Read about how Senate Democrats are considering measures such as withholding consent to protest the AHCA:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/17/politics/senate-democrats-gop-health-care/index.html
Read about the fact that 13 Republican Senators–all men–are rewriting the AHCA:
Read about how the Senate Republicans are deliberately writing the AHCA bill in secret:
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-s-health-care-bill-remains-shrouded-secrecy-n772456
One Thing You Can Do 