Senate Will Take First Vote Today on Health Care Bill

Sam Baker: “Stranger things have happened, but Sen. John McCain probably isn’t taking a break from his brain-cancer treatments to travel 2,300 miles across the country so he can torpedo a bill about an issue he’s never been especially invested in, which he could have torpedoed just as easily by staying in Arizona.”

“If McCain is a ‘yes’ on today’s motion to proceed — and, sure, take nothing for granted, but if — then Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is in a considerably better position.”

“Sen. Susan Collins is a ‘no.’ But it sounds like Sens. Rand Paul and Mike Lee will get their request to begin the voting with a modified version of the 2015 straight-repeal vote. If those two support the motion to proceed, it would take two more moderates to join Collins and prevent a vote-a-rama.”

David Nather:  “It’s impossible to overstate how incredible this is: The Senate is planning to vote today to begin debate on a health care bill. No one knows which one — which means no one knows what it would do.”