Senate Democrats are asking people in the “resist” movement to participate in demonstrations around the country in an effort to help kill Republican efforts to overhaul the healthcare system after their successful vote to proceed to the legislation on Tuesday.
Led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Democrats made explicit calls to liberal activists in a post-vote rally on the Senate steps and the lawn outside the Capitol Visitor Center that lasted about two hours and 30 minutes as lawmaker after lawmaker appeared to gin up the base. Democrats were joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the popular runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination last year.
“We are going to do everything we can inside this building, and we want you, and thank you and millions of Americans, for doing things outside this building because together we are united in saying that this bill will hurt so many millions of people in so many ways that we will not let it pass,” Schumer said at the rally. “We are going to fight and fight and fight until this bill is dead!”
Schumer said he hoped to work with Republicans if the GOP’s efforts fail, but many of those in attendance cried out for “single-payer,” or a system in which the government is the main purchaser of government for millions of Americans.
Sanders agreed with Schumer, and echoed many of the themes he put forward in his presidential campaign. He called the GOP bill a massive tax-break for the richest Americans and said it was the “most dangerous piece of legislation ever to be discussed on the floor of the Senate” in modern history.
“We need millions of Americans from coast to coast to stand up and tell the Republicans, ‘This is America, we are not going to pass legislation that allows thousands to die,'” Sanders pleaded.
Other than trying to gin up public opposition and trying to slow down the process, there’s little else Democrats can do to stop Republicans other than hope the GOP itself can’t agree on how to proceed. That alone might be enough, as the GOP is expected to struggle to find enough consensus to pass a bill.
But Democrats are also looking to keep their base motivated as they head toward the 2018 midterm elections. Schumer specifically mentioned Sens. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., widely viewed as the two most vulnerable Senate Republicans up for re-election in 2018, during his Tuesday press conference in an attempt to heap political pressure on their shoulders.
For now though, the attention has moved to the upcoming process, which involves Senate Democrats introducing hundreds of amendments to the GOP healthcare bill. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said that he plans to introduce at least 100 amendments himself, all of which are likely be voted down.
Despite Tuesday’s vote, though, the Democrats are keeping the faith.
“Anyone who thinks this is over is sadly mistaken,” Schumer warned.
