From: Ryan Grim [mailto:info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2017 10:51 AM
To: miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Healthcare day in the Senate -- Israel boycott bill getting amended --
Single payer in Maryland?
It’s been odd to watch the healthcare goalpost being dragged by the media from
where they normally are -- passage of a bill -- to where they are now: simply
getting enough votes to debate a bill on the floor.
Look, Republicans control the Senate. As a matter of course, they should be
able to get enough votes to merely debate a bill. Getting to the floor doesn’t
count as a win. That would be like applauding a football team for managing to
get their cleats and helmets on. The question that people need to worry about
is not whether they can get to the floor, but whether they can get off the
floor with a real bill passed.
And there are still a bunch of reasons to think that’s not happening, namely:
Susan Collins, Shelley Moore Capito, Rand Paul, Dean Heller, Ron Johnson, Jerry
Moran, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Rob Portman and Lisa Murkowski, just to mention a
few. They can lose 2 votes and that’s 10 -- on the day they’re starting debate!
-- who are either opposed or undecided. With health insurance for tens of
millions of people on the line, nothing should be taken for granted, but the
fundamental reality remains the same: Republicans do not agree about what a
replacement bill should do, and they don’t have close to a majority to repeal
it outright.
The vote on the motion to proceed is expected sometime early this afternoon. To
proceed to what? Nobody knows and we're just hours away.
The latest possibility is this:
1. They get the votes to move to debate
2. They vote on full repeal and that fails
3. They vote on the Cruz amendment, with a Portman amendment to add more
Medicaid money, and that fails
4. Then they vote to repeal the individual mandate, get rid of the medical
device tax, repeal the employer mandate, and call it "skinny repeal," and
declare themselves victorious
5. Go to conference with the House
6. ??????????
In the world where things are already happening, we have a story on how
Maryland has been quietly creating a new model for healthcare delivery, called
all-payer rate setting. It’s a cousin of single payer, and both fascinating and
promising. Story by David Dayen here.
And in the wake of the ACLU’s concerns about the First Amendment implications
of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act I wrote about last week, senators are open to
amending it. My interviews with Ben Cardin and others here.
Oh, and the Pentagon spent $28 million on Afghan army uniforms with camouflage
on them. Just about 2 percent of the country is forest. Whoops. Story here.
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