Let's Put A Stake Through This, Once and For All

This is disturbing:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Monday said Republican senators have no idea what Obamacare repeal bill they’ll be voting on Tuesday at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) request.

You can always tell that the party in charge has a clear vision of what's best for the country when leadership demands that they vote on something without telling anyone what it is.  Yes, indeed, America needs this bill, and it will make America great again, just as soon as we figure out what it is.

Ordinarily, this wouldn't be cause for much concern, because as the story points out, neither of the Senate bills to replace Obamacare has received the necessary support to pass --- at least not publicly.  In addition, the bills which have been made public can't even be passed under reconciliation rules, and would thus need 60 votes to pass.

But then there's this ominous and late-breaking detail:

Sen. John McCain, recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, will make a dramatic return to the Senate Tuesday to cast a critical vote on health care legislation.

McCain's office announced Monday night that he would return Tuesday -- a surprise to most in Washington who expected him to miss the crucial vote and return to Washington at a later date.

Now, given the fact that McCain is literally returning from his hospital bed where he just received life-saving treatment for brain cancer, any reasonable person would assume that he is naturally going to vote against this abomination of a bill, which no matter how you slice it is estimated to cause several million Americans (22 million?  32 million?) to lose their health insurance, most of those people who are on Medicaid and who can't obtain health care in any other way.  After all, it would be the highest form of cruelty for McCain to go to heroic lengths and put his own health at risk for the sole purpose of guaranteeing that millions of Americans will be deprived of exactly the same life-saving treatment he just received.

So I hope McCain is returning to Washington for the sole purpose of standing up in front of the Senate and the nation to tell his Republican party that they should be ashamed of themselves not only for contemplating such a horrific bill, but for wasting 6 precious months of the legislative calendar screwing around with it.  I hope he tells them that he not only intends to vote against this bill or any other like it, but that he will fight tooth and nail to put a stake through the heart of such legislation, and make sure that the coverage provided by Obamacare is not only preserved, but expanded.  If McCain did this, it would certainly cement his reputation as one of the great mavericks and statesmen of our time.

But I'm not getting my hopes up.

One thing that gives me some hope is that someone with a lot more influence than I have organized this:

Every major patients' rights group in the country took out a full-page ad in today's New York Times to urge a No vote on Obamacare repeal. pic.twitter.com/qnijHJnqJk

— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) July 24, 2017

It's a good start, but every little bit helps.  It's time to end this fiasco once and for all.  Please call your Senator, especially if your Senator happens to be Jeff Flake (AZ), Dean Heller (NV), Ted Cruz (TX), Luther Strange (AL), Roger Wicker (MS), Deb Fischer (NE), Bob Corker (TN), Orrin Hatch (UT) or John Barasso (WY), as they all happen to be Republicans up for election next year.  Flake, Heller and Cruz are considered especially vulnerable.  Tell them you want them to oppose this legislation, and that if they don't, you'll make sure to remind everyone of their vote next year.

It also seems like a good time to repost this.