BOWIE, Md. — Democrats are trying to generate a grassroots movement to pressure Republican senators to flip and save the Affordable Care Act.
A rally held in Bowie, Md., featuring remarks from several high-ranking Democrats was one of more than 40 across the country as part of a “Day of Action” on preserving the Affordable Care Act. A major part of the rally, which organizers said was attended by roughly 1,500 people at Bowie State University, was aimed at calls for three GOP senators to join a united Democratic caucus to vote against efforts to repeal the law.
“We need action out of this,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told the packed auditorium.
Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the House Minority Whip, said that GOP efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act are just beginning.
“They’ve got a long way to go before they can get it done,” he said.
The GOP took the first step towards repeal by passing a budget resolution in the House and Senate that sets federal spending levels for the next decade. The resolution is a vehicle that the GOP will use to repeal the law using reconciliation, which enables Republicans to bypass a filibuster in the senate, which requires 60 votes to break, and repeal the law via a 51-vote majority.
The resolution directs four Senate and House panels to start drafting repeal legislation that can be approved via reconciliation, giving a nonbinding deadline of Jan. 27.
To use reconciliation, a bill must only apply to budget and spending levels, hence the need to pass the budget resolution first outlining such levels for the next decade.
While Maryland is a blue state, organizers aimed for attendees to reach out to friends and family who live in states represented by Republican senators.
Currently, the GOP has a 52-48 majority in the Senate and can afford only two defections. Vice President-elect Mike Pence can break any ties in the Senate.
That means that Democrats need three GOP senators to flip.
The Senate voted 51-49 to approve the budget resolution early Thursday, with only Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., defecting. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was absent.
However, Paul’s opposition was due more to problems with the nonbinding budget resolution than with defending Obamacare. Paul said on the Senate floor that the resolution leaves a $9.7 trillion hole in the deficit over the next decade.
Paul gave details of his own Obamacare replacement plan that he hopes could be approved by Congress on the same day as repeal, something that President-elect Trump has said he wants.
However, there is no word on whether House and Senate GOP leadership will adopt the plan. While several replacement plans have been offered in recent years, GOP leadership has not coalesced around one.
Some GOP moderates have expressed concern about repealing the Affordable Care Act without an immediate replacement, but only Paul bucked his party on the resolution.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and four other Republicans filed an amendment to the budget resolution, calling for more time for the committees to draft repeal legislation. However, he withdrew his amendment after GOP leadership assured him that the Jan. 27 deadline was the earliest repeal legislation could occur.
Hoyer and Van Hollen both told the Washington Examiner after the rally that they haven’t gotten any word from Republicans on what will be in the reconciliation package. Republicans successfully passed a reconciliation package in 2015 that repealed Obamacare’s mandates and taxes, but President Obama vetoed the measure.
Van Hollen said that he hasn’t seen Paul’s latest replacement plan but is willing to look at it.
Any plan, he added, has to meet the test of “providing affordable care to as many people who are covered by the Affordable Care Act, which is not just people on the exchanges but also seniors on Medicare who saw their prescription drug costs go down.”
Some volunteers at the rally expressed gratitude for the law’s reforms.
Carol Nekar said she came out to save the provision that ensures coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.
“I worked with folks with developmental disabilities and they need good insurance for their parents to take care of them,” she said as she handed out fliers to rallygoers. “That really needs to stay there,” she said.
“I think [the Affordable Care Act] is the best thing since sliced bread,” she added.
