What Happened to the Secret Ballot in the Senate Today?
Rumor has it that the Senate will vote to pass the health care bill today. What is the score? It’s a secret. Here’s your guide on what voting means and what might happen after it.
Update: Proposal to continue, was accepted by 50 votes. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the two Republicans who voted against.
Wait, what is a “motion to continue” voting?
This is not the same as voting yes or no on a bill. This is a vote “for the introduction of a bill or other measure.” It usually requires 60 votes, but the Republican plan is to push the health care bill through a loophole designed to shuffle federal money . This means that they can only proceed with 50 votes. (Republicans hold 52 out of 100 seats in the Senate; in the event of a tie, the vice president takes the casting vote.)
If that vote fails, the bill cannot be brought up for discussion … yet. If successful, voting starts.
What is the point of this strategy?
Republican senators have proposed several different bills in recent weeks, none of which seem to have gained enough votes to pass. In the past week, enough Senators have spoken out against pending bills (including outright repeal of Obamacare), each of which seemed doomed. But McConnell’s plan is to collect 50 votes in any way possible.
When in May, Republicans in the House of Representatives adopted its own version of Trumpcare , they rationalize it by saying that actually it is not the law, which will come into force; they just vote on the idea of abolishing Obamacare and the Senate to rewrite it anyway. McConnell used a similar stance last week with senators who objected to substantial cuts in Medicaid, saying the cuts “may never happen.”
While there is no legislation that would support 50 senators, but still 52 want something to do in the health sector. Thus, a motion to continue the mysterious bill should be able to get at least 50 votes if every senator believes the bill will be what he wants.
So if that fails, Trumpcare will die?
Hahahaha, no. Trumpcare is a zombie creature that will never die as long as the Republicans have a majority out there. (At least until 2018.)
In a recent issue of Pod Save the People, Andy Slavitt – a medic who is one of our favorite Twitter followers – compared McConnell to the kind of quarterback who can make you believe your team still has a chance, even if the score looks real. really bad. “You can never read it,” Slavitt said.
What happens if they vote in favor?
After the proposal for a sequel, the Senate gets 20 hours to debate the bill – whatever it may be – and propose amendments to it. This means that the vote on the bill will take place on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Republicans will be under intense pressure to get something done. McConnell could completely replace the bill just before the vote with an “amendment” that erases existing text and introduces something new. There will be no CBO points for anything recently written, so it is impossible to check how many people will lose insurance due to this. Previous estimates of the bill range from the 22 million people who lost their insurance according to the recent Senate version to 32 million people who lost their insurance with a full cancellation.
So the senators know they are voting to make insurance out of the reach of millions of Americans and change a sixth of the nation’s economy. They just don’t know which of these bills.
Key provisions of Senate bills, including a six-month waiting period for insurance, which should support the insurance market, have recently been ruled out inappropriate when agreeing to the budget . So this bill, whatever it is, will face many difficulties, even if it is passed. Grab some popcorn and stay tuned.