After finding out the hard way how complicated health care actually is, Trump said letting Obamacare fail will be “much easier.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s last-ditch effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement plan is floundering. After the Senate’s version of Trumpcare fell apart on Monday night, McConnell came up with a “burn it to the ground” strategy to repeal the ACA now but delay implementation—a strategy that would cause more than 30 million people to lose their health care and cause premiums to skyrocket.
Sens. Murkowski (R-AK), Capito (R-WV), and Collins (R-ME) have all said they will vote against a repeal and delay bill, effectively killing the vote. But it’s not over yet. McConnell plans on holding the procedural vote, which would bring the official repeal and delay vote to the floor early next week, which means we have to keep up the pressure.
There is much more than a political win at stake: watch these videos as a reminder of the huge cost of repealing the ACA.
ACTION OF THE DAY
This Isn’t Over. Today, Trump invited all 52 Republican Senators to the White House today to try one last time to convince them to repeal the Affordable Care Act. This cannot happen. This is the week to shut this down for good. Call your senators at (202) 224-3121 as much as possible, today and tomorrow. We can end this, but only with your help!
WHAT’S TRENDING
#RespectMyVote. The Trump administration’s sham commission to investigate American voters held its first meeting today. Rather than addressing the threat to our electoral system posed by hostile foreign actors like Russia interfering in our elections, the commission is instead focused on making it harder for Americans to vote. A person is more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit voter fraud, but that hasn’t stopped Kansas Secretary of State and head of Trump’s voter fraud commission from implementing extreme voter suppression measures in the name of protecting against voter fraud. These voter suppression tactics—from proof of citizenship requirements to illegal voter purges—have a huge impact on keeping eligible voters off the rolls and prevents Americans from using their power to change government. Read more here.
Disclosure. Not trending at the White House. Last night yet another layer was added on to the Trump/Russia story: at the G20 summit earlier this month, Trump and Putin held a second, previously undisclosed meeting. In keeping with his response to most of the concern about his and his team’s relationship with Russia, Trump described the story as “sick” and blamed the media for overreacting. Reality check: it goes against all national security protocol to meet with a Russian leader without only Russian staff present. More on why it matters here.
Partisanship. It’s long been trending in DC. But here’s an idea—a bipartisan way to fix health care. (Hint: it doesn’t involve repealing the ACA).
UNDER THE RADAR
House Budget. There have been many distractions on Capitol Hill, but yesterday, House Republicans released their budget proposal. It looks a lot like Trump’s—i.e. it includes devastating cuts to crucial programs to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Here are the top eight ways the budget will hurt working families to pay for tax cuts for millionaires.
GOOD NEWS
Keep it 100. That’s what a new bill in California would do. The bill, which passed through a key legislative committee in California earlier this week, would mandate that the state receive all of its electricity from renewable sources.