September 20, 2017

“Senate Republicans are on the verge of passing a sweeping health care bill not only without knowing what’s in it, but without particularly caring. The political abstraction of ‘Obamacare’ — and the seven years of promises to ‘repeal Obamacare’ — have almost totally overshadowed even the broad strokes of policy, much less the details,” Axios reports.

Said one GOP lobbyist: “I am just in shock how no one actually cares about the policy any more.”

“The bottom line: The repeal-and-replace bill sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy is gaining steam because it has the appearance of gaining steam — not because of the changes it would make.”

Rick Klein: “This rerun of the fight has been quieter, to the GOP’s benefit so far. But, as Democrats learned the hard way in the Obama years, Republicans will own the policy as well as the process.”

Politico: “Senate Democrats are weighing whether they have enough procedural tricks — and stamina — to kill a possible GOP attempt to repeal Obamacare. The Democrats are considering whether they could force enough amendment votes on the Senate floor to run out the clock and effectively kill the Obamacare repeal, by taking debate past Sept. 30, when the GOP’s special procedural tool to pass a bill with just a simple majority expires.”

“If Republicans move forward … they would be faced with an extremely tight timeline. They left Washington on Tuesday ahead of Rosh Hashanah and are not expected to return until Monday evening. Yom Kippur will begin Friday evening, just about 30 hours before the reconciliation deadline hits on Saturday, Sept. 30. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the authors of the latest Obamacare repeal bill, who attends a Baptist church, said he won’t try to get the Senate to work through the Jewish holiday.”