Democratic senators are reigniting their calls to fight against another Republican health-care push that aims to repeal and replace ObamaCare after reports surfaced that President Trump and GOP leaders are working to garner support for legislation introduced by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
Prominent upper-chamber lawmakers like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) are taking to Twitter to make impassioned calls for voters to speak up and demonstrate their opposition to the bill.
“Drop what you are doing to start calling, start showing up, start descending on DC,” Murphy tweeted Sunday.
“I’m alarmed,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) tweeted, while linking to a Politico report that describes the GOP leadership’s back-door push to find support for the legislation.
The measure, put forward by Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.), Dean Heller (Nev.), Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.), aims to give more power to states by converting ObamaCare funding for subsidies — which help people afford health-care coverage and pay for Medicaid expansion — into a block grant to states.
While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has withheld full-throttled support by telling Cassidy and Graham to find the necessary 51 votes on their own, Cassidy says leadership is asking the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to prioritize its analysis of the measure in an effort to get it to the floor.
“We’re told that CBO was told by our leadership to make this a priority above all other priorities,” Cassidy said Friday, while predicting that he can get enough votes. “Mitch has always said, ‘Show me you can get 50 votes.’ ”