The New York Times reports details of Democrats’ attempt to sideline the Obamacare repeal effort and pass the Trump Administration-endorsed replacement:
Republicans on the panel held together and rejected a slew of Democratic amendments while doing little on their own to change the health bill. Many of the amendments were drafted to make Republicans look heartless or rash, forcing Republicans to cast votes that could be cited in campaign advertisements in next year’s midterm elections. The Ways and Means Committee finished approving its portion of the legislation after 4 a.m., nearly 18 hours after it began its work on Wednesday. Another panel, the Energy and Commerce Committee, was still at work on its review of the legislation.
While the bill makes its way through the Republican-led House of Representatives, special interest groups aligned with the health care industry lined up with harsh criticism of the Republican plan: (The Hill)
Major hospital groups, including the American Hospital Association and a larger coalition of hospitals called America’s Hospitals and Health Systems, have written letters to Capitol Hill slamming the legislation and urging members to oppose it. Doctors, through the American Medical Association (AMA), joined that chorus on Wednesday morning, calling the bill “critically flawed.” Other major players — including seniors advocacy group AARP and health organizations from the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society to the March of Dimes — have also panned the bill.
Meanwhile, as THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s Michael Warren reports this morning in his 1st 100 Days Newsletter, the president is ostensibly telling conservatives who may raise principled objections to the GOP plan to “take it or leave it.”
