Whether or not you support their Obamacare replacement effort, the Graham-Cassidy healthcare bill proves that big dreams can still thrive in the U.S. Senate.
Just a few days ago most observers would have laughed if told that an Obamacare repeal bill had a chance of Senate passage. It was commonly assumed that repeal, at least for this year, was dead and buried.
Don’t get me wrong, I recognize that the measure from Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., is no sure thing. Most Capitol Hill reporters suggest that the bill remains three or four votes short of passage. And even if it passed the Senate, the bill would have to be reconciled with the House of Representatives.
Still, it’s inspiring that senators can, in such short order, rustle up major legislation that has a shot of becoming landmark law.
It’s inspiring, because today’s common refrain is that Washington politics is rigged for congressional leaders. Many senators share that viewpoint: Less than one year after entering the Senate, Marco Rubio lamented, “Do we just stand around and do nothing? Or do we actually begin to act?”
Yet Graham-Cassidy’s remarkable possibility shows that if a few senators have the determination and the necessary relationships, anything is possible. Graham, in particular, emphasizes this truth.
After all, respected by both Democratic and Republican colleagues, Graham seems to have found the votes that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell perhaps could not. This is most pertinent in regards to Graham’s close and longstanding friendship with Sen. John McCain, who was a key swing vote in defeating the last Obamacare repeal bill. McCain hasn’t said whether he’ll vote for Graham-Cassidy, but I would venture that he will.
Regardless, if Graham-Cassidy passes, it will have a lot to do with the personal engagement of Graham and his co-sponsor, Cassidy. But even if it doesn’t pass, that two Senators came so close to such monumental a political act proves that American politics remains the field for big ambitions.
For all the hyperbole and doubt in America’s 2017 political life, the founders’ democracy continues to thrive.
