Protesters demonstrate outside the Capitol in Washington as the House voted on a bill repealing and replacing major parts of the Affordable Care Act, on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 4, 2017. The measure, which passed by a count of 217 to 213 with 20 Republicans voting against, faces profound uncertainty in the Senate. (Photo: Gabriella Demczuk / The New York Times)
As you have probably heard by now, the House has voted 217-213 in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The American Health Care Act (AHCA), or Trumpcare, as many have dubbed it, is one step closer to becoming law, and many of us are duly terrified. The battle now moves to the Senate, and those who argued that the Trump administration had proven too inept to fear have had their out-of-touch arrogance exposed. In truth, the “normalization” we were all afraid of came in the form of notions that Trump was too much of a buffoon to hurt us — a contention that never made sense, given how much power the Republicans currently wield.
Shaken by these developments, many people are asking, “What do we do now?”
First, Some Facts
If the AHCA actually reduces the budget, it can pass with 51 votes. No one knows yet how this bill will affect the budget because the GOP rushed it through without hard numbers. If it does not reduce the budget, it will require 60 votes, and the GOP is not likely to snare that many votes in the Senate. That means that if the bill doesn’t reduce the budget, it will have to be rewritten, and make no mistake, stalling matters.
We’ve Got Power
In this dark moment, it’s easy to feel powerless, but we have a lot going for us in this fight, and we have a lot of leverage. We just need to be strategic about using it. A number of Republican senators are vulnerable, because a lot of people in their states have benefitted from the ACA. A lot of those same people hate Obamacare in theory, but the cold, hard reality of losing health care could provoke a different response.
The Republicans who flipped…