Senate Democrats held a talkathon from the Senate floor on Monday night, ahead of a key hurdle on the GOP effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
“When the goal is big tax cuts, it’s hard to come up with something that actually also improves people’s healthcare. The Republican health bills have gone from bad to worse to embarrassing,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said that it was “gut check time” in the Senate, while Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) added that Republicans are preparing to “blow up” healthcare.
The floor protest, which stretched late into Monday night, comes as Republicans plan to try to proceed Tuesday to the House-passed healthcare bill, paving the way for Senate GOP action on an ObamaCare repeal-and-replace effort.
{mosads}With a 52-seat majority, Republicans have a narrow margin to be able to start debate on their healthcare proposals. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) needs 50 senators to agree to start debate.
Several moderate GOP senators remain on the fence ahead of the vote, though McConnell may be boosted by news that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will return to the Senate on Tuesday.
Murphy, referencing GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s (W.Va.) comments that she didn’t come to the Senate to “hurt people,” warned that the GOP proposals would devastate the country’s healthcare system.
“We are on the verge of taking a vote on a bill that objectively will rein a level of devastation down on this country that’s really hard to fathom,” he said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) painted the vote on the healthcare bill as a life or death situation for Americans with life-threatening illnesses including cancer.
“They are struggling for their lives right now … and they are thinking what happens if this Republican bill is passed, will I live … or will I die?” Sanders asked from the Senate floor.
Republicans have yet to say if their end goal is to move ObamaCare repeal and replacement in the same bill, or repeal ObamaCare with a delayed replacement. Democrats aren’t expected to support either.
“Not one of these options is acceptable, and I’m skeptical that my colleagues will be able to come up with a better solution in the next 24 hours,” said Sen.
Jack Reed (D-R.I.).
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) urged Republicans to buck leadership and help stall the bill, floating that they could send the legislation through the Senate committee process instead.
“Here’s the good news. If three Republicans — three of 52 — will step up and say, stop, we can do better as a Senate, that will be the end of this terrible endeavor,” he said from the Senate floor on Monday evening.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I) added that his GOP colleagues should not be controlled by a “cabal of creepy billionaires.”
Democrats have ripped Republicans for the closed-door process used to craft their healthcare legislation, including an initial working group convened by McConnell that didn’t include female senators.
They’re stepping up their messaging war against the healthcare bill ahead of Tuesday’s vote. In addition to the slate of floor speeches, Democrats and constituents went live on Facebook from off the Senate floor.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who is up for reelection in 2018, is holding a healthcare town hall later this week.
If the current GOP healthcare effort fails, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has said he would hold a hearing in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee focused on insurance prices. McConnell said it was his “suspicion” that there could be hearings.
Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who presided over part of the Democratic marathon session, said there had been “a lot of innuendo” about the GOP healthcare effort on Monday night.
“Let me talk about who’s hurting people in America today … [Democrats] want a big government solution that gives them more power,” Perdue said during an impassioned floor speech. “ObamaCare is hurting people right now.”
He knocked the Congressional Budget Office, saying it doesn’t “know what they’re doing,” and called the Medicaid expansion “bribery from the federal government.”
Perdue also, echoing Trump, accused Democrats of slow-walking the president’s picks and warned it could compromise bigger GOP agenda items such as tax reform.
“It’s outrageous. The American people ought to be upset … [Democrats] are dragging their feet,” he said.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) made a special mention of McCain from the Senate floor on Monday night; the senator is recovering from surgery and was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, but will be back in Washington this week.
“Cancer is going to find a match in Senator McCain. This touches us in this body,” he said.
Updated 10:31 p.m.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
