After countless days of back and forth and mixed messages from both Trump and Senate Majority Leader McConnell, Trumpcare still isn’t dead. Last night, a group of Senate Republican holdouts met in yet another attempt to reach a compromise on their plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Here’s where the deal stands.
The bottom line is they have yet to come up with a plan that doesn’t strip health care away from more than 20 million people. In fact, in all their negotiating, they’ve managed to take already cruel and immoral legislation and make it even worse. Yesterday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its analysis of the repeal and delay plan and the CBO confirmed that repealing the Affordable Care Act without a replacement plan would leave 32 million individuals without health care coverage and 75 percent of the country without a functioning individual insurance market.
Now, Senate majority leaders are intent on bringing Trumpcare back from the dead. They are back to working on backroom deals to try to sell the same, damaging bill in a new package.
ACTION OF THE DAY
Keep up the pressure. Trumpcare is the bill that won’t die. Senate majority leaders are trying again to bring it back from the dead. Don’t let them sneak through their cruel bill and take health care from tens of millions of Americans. Call your Senator today at (202) 224-3121 and demand they oppose Trumpcare. Then go to TrumpcareToolkit.org to contact the Senators who need to hear from you most.
WHAT’S TRENDING
This Russia Thing. In an interview with the New York Times last night, Trump once again proved he has no regard for the rule of law. He said he never would have chosen Jeff Sessions as his Attorney General if he had known Sessions would recuse himself from the investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia. Despite the comment, Sessions said he plans to stay in his job. In the same interview, Trump appeared to be laying the groundwork to fire special counsel Mueller. In other Russia news, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort will all testify to Congress next week about their secret meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer.
McCain. Last night, it was reported that the six-term Senator has been diagnosed with glioblastoma, the same difficult to treat brain cancer that both Sen. Edward Kennedy and Beau Biden had. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle came together to honor McCain.
SCOTUS. Yesterday, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s request to block immigrants who are the grandparents or grandchildren of American citizens from entering the U.S. as part of Trump’s Muslim Ban 2.0. But in the same ruling, the Supreme Court allowed the administration’s extreme restrictions on allowing refugees into the country to stand.
DREAM Act. Today, Senators Dick Durbin (R-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced a new version of the DREAM Act, a bill that would grant legal status and establish a path to citizenship for Dreamers—immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. The introduction of this crucial bill comes as the attorneys general from 10 states have demanded that the administration eliminate DACA and end protections for nearly 800,000 young people that have come forward, passed background checks, and gained permission to live and work lawfully in America. There’s broad support for Dreamers: nearly 8-in-10 registered voters, including more than 7-in-10 registered Republicans, believe Dreamers should be allowed to remain in the United States legally.
UNDER THE RADAR
Texas. Transgender Texans are under attack: three new bathroom bans have been introduced in the state legislature in just the last two weeks. One would prohibit schools from protecting trans students; another would ban transgender people from using facilities consistent with their gender identity. We need your help to stop them: Use this toolkit to tell Texas Representatives to reject discrimination and stand with trans Texans.
GOOD NEWS
Resistance Is working. Consistent resistance has stopped Trumpcare so far. Just ask these Republican senators. Keep it up!