Remember: The strategy for passing the bill depends on secrecy. Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and their allies understand that their plans are deeply unpopular. So the best way to prevent them from taking health coverage from people is to call attention to their efforts. On Tuesday night, one Obamacare replacement bill had already failed.

Spiro suggested that people with Democratic senators call them to urge them to fight as hard as possible, by filibustering and offering unlimited amendments. Locking in the tentative no votes from the Republican senators Lisa Murkowski (of Alaska) and Susan Collins (of Maine) is also critical.

Meanwhile, people who live in Ohio, Nevada, West Virginia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Kansas, Colorado, Louisiana and Utah are represented by Republican senators who could provide the swing vote.

Senate leadership wants to pass a bill this week, Marianna Sotomayor of NBC reported. One worrisome possibility, as Senator Chris Murphy noted, is the Senate passing a bare-bones bill, under the guise of fixing it during so-called conference negotiations with the House. That would almost certainly lead to massive losses in insurance coverage.

If you were ever tempted to get involved in politics, now would be a good time to make a phone call or urge friends and relatives to do so. And if youre a United States senator who is tempted to put Americans well-being above partisan loyalty, now would be a really good time.

The McCain moment: John McCain, who rushed back to Washington from a diagnosis of aggressive brain cancer, faces an especially stark choice.

He suggested yesterday that he was disgusted by the process so far and blasted it for violating the Senates regular order but he also voted to move ahead. For him, voting against any bill produced by this process would be the most consistent stand in favor of regular order, Adam Jentleson, a former Democratic Senate aide, wrote. If Im wrong & McCain votes for whatever monstrosity comes out of this process, hell lose all authority on the Senate as an institution.

David A. Graham, in The Atlantic, was struck by the same tension: Senate floor speeches can stir the heart strings. But if McCain intends to return the body to regular order, at some point, hes actually going to have to vote to do that.

Intriguingly, FiveThirtyEights Nate Silver argues that younger political writers were more critical of McCains speech than older writers.

See the article here:

Citizen Action on Health Care - New York Times