Heller Comes Out Against TrumpCare
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This is the first meaningful opposition to come from the Republican Senate conference:
Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) said Friday that he cannot support Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s health-care bill without changes to it, becoming the fifth GOP senator to take that position since the bill was released on Thursday.
Heller, who is up for reelection in 2018, has expressed concerns about the way the measure addresses the future of Medicaid. The proposal would impose long-term federal spending cuts on the program.
“I cannot support a piece of legislation that takes away insurance from tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nevadans,” Heller said in a news conference held in his home state.
Nevada, like most states, expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
This isn’t a lock. But it’s also not the meaningless “we have some concerns” crap you’re getting from people who are 100% likely to vote yea if McConnell needs the vote, like Cruz. He’s making 1)a specific criticism of the bill that 2)will not be significantly changed before the vote. He may just be trying to lock in one of McConnell’s two golden tickets, but giving McConnell less room to spare is important.
To follow up on Paul’s post yesterday, I wanted to make one thing clear. During the campaign, like almost everybody I thought Clinton was overwhelmingly likely to win, and discounted sound analysis suggesting that the race was closer than the conventional wisdom suggested. This was a bad mistake. But one mistake I hope I didn’t share with a lot of the rest of the media is letting that assumption determine the rest of my analysis. To the best of my ability, I tried to discuss the substantive consequences of the election and criticize coverage that distorted these consequences. I don’t blame reporters for assuming Clinton would win. I do blame them for treating Clinton as president and Trump as a sideshow. Act as if the race is competitive, not only because you never know but because your assumption can (and, in this case, did) affect the race.
As an analyst, I feel I owe you my honest opinion about how likely the Republicans are to pass this utter atrocity. But let me emphasize that as members of a political community, everyone should act as if this thing can be stopped. Do what ever you feel comfortable doing — call, march, share stories about the horrible impact of the bill, anything you can. Don’t leave anything on the table. It’s a literal matter of life and death. A lot of people who are pretty confident that the Senate will pass the bill were pretty confident AHCA was completely dead two months ago. Don’t let preemptively assuming defeat make defeat more likely.
...good lay of the land from Ed Kilgore.