John McCain became a democratic hero in the early Friday morning hours when he struck down the republican Skinny Repeal of Obamacare effectively killing any chance the Affordable Care Act gets overturned, at least in the immediate future.
This came as somewhat of a surprise to many within the GOP, especially Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell who seemed sure that McCain would vote down party lines. With that in mind lets also not forget it was McCain who flew all the way from Arizona after undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his brain to send the repeal bill to debate.
But was it McCain’s plan all along to send the repeal bill to debate only to kill it when the reconciliation went to a vote on the Senate floor? This reddit user outlines McCain’s experience and savagery in the Senate chamber.
I’m not sure if it’s really being appreciated just how comprehensively the Republicans were just fucked over.
See, the Republicans have been trying to pass these godawful healthcare bills through a process called budget reconciliation, which, among other things, protects the bill from being filibustered in the Senate and only requires a simple majority of 50 votes (rather than 60, which the Republicans don’t have).
The thing is, the Senate can only consider one budget reconciliation bill per topic per year. Of course, if the bill dies in committee and never comes to an official vote, it doesn’t count- which is why they’ve been able to keep hammering away at the issue.
This bill, though, was allowed to come to the Senate floor, because the Republicans thought they’d secured the votes. Collins, Murkowski and the Democrats would vote no, everyone else would vote yes, and Pence would break the tie. And then McCain completely fucked them. And it was almost certainly a calculated move; he voted to allow the bill to come to the floor. Had McCain allowed it to die in committee, McConnell could have come back with yet another repeal bill; but he let it come to a vote, and now they can’t consider another budget reconciliation bill for the rest of the fiscal year. The Senate needs 60 votes to pass any kind of healthcare reform now.
So now they’re caught between a rock and a hard place. Either they concede defeat on the issue and try again later (causing a big, unpopular stink that could damage elections if they try it before the midterms, or risking losing the slim majority they already have if they wait) or they actually sit down with the democrats like adults and write a halfway decent healthcare bill.
This is amazing.
This certainly adds a little more perspective to the dramatics we saw early Friday morning. McCain’s walk up to the Senate clerk’s desk, putting out his hand, dropping the thumbs down while starring down a cross armed Mitch McConnell and walking away.
If there was ever a mic drop moment on the Senate floor this was it.