The latest incarnation of the poisonous Senate healthcare bill, courtesy of Mitch McConnell, was called the Healthcare Freedom Act (frees one up to die with no healthcare). Slapped together in a day or two, all of eight pages. Published only on Thursday. Not a single hearing. Per the Congressional Budget Office it would force 16 million people off health insurance coverage, increase premiums 20% for people with insurance. Yet Mitch McConnell has the nerve to bring it up in the dead of night, with VP Mike Pence on hand, to cast a potential tie-breaking vote, if the Senate had voted 50-50.
In a scene of high drama, after impassioned pleas from Democrats to vote ‘No’, the roll-call vote finally comes. 49 of 52 Republican senators vote ‘Yes’ (just not John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins). The bill fails by the narrowest of margins: 49-51.
So: the Senate Republicans demonstrated vividly how careless, how rotten to the core they are, as policymakers and as legislators. Go home, and never come back!
