As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pressures his colleagues for a vote on the new health care proposal before the July 4 recess, Sen. Marco Rubio R-Fla., did a rare thing on Sunday when he spoke against his ranks by pointing out that constructing a health care bill in complete secrecy is probably not the best way to go about implementing an overhaul to a system that will impact tens of millions of lives.
"The Senate is not a place where you can just cook up something behind closed doors and rush it for a vote on the floor," Rubio told John Dickerson in a "Face the Nation interview. “Especially on an issue like this."
"So the first step in this may be crafted among a small group of people, but then everyone's going to get to weigh in."
The process to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act has not been a formal one, as Republicans have hid the bill in a closed-door process and have no intentions of making a draft publicly available because they "aren't stupid," according to one GOP Senate aide.
President Donald Trump wants things to run quickly and smoothly so he can once again boast about a much needed legislative accomplishment. Though he has privately called the health care bill that passed in the House in May "mean" and wants the Senate Republicans to be "more generous." However, that's unlikely to happen, and according to Rubio, so is a swift vote.
"It is going to take days and weeks to work through that in the Senate," Rubio said. Though he is still likely to vote for the bill anyways.
This is a vital week for the Senate because they need to finalize the bill in order to receive a score from the Congressional Budget Office and they won't vote without one, according to Axios. After the House proposal passed, the CBO score said it would throw 23 million people of health insurance over the course of the next decade. Axios reported that McConnell is likely to force a vote before July 4 regardless of whether he knows he has the necessary 50 votes or not.
It might be wise for Republicans to reconsider how they construct the health care overhaul because Sen. Ben Sasse R-Neb., has been the victim of some state of the art trolling. Someone has subscribed various email accounts of his to the band Nickelback's promo newsletters, and he's pretty pissed off.
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