Republicans are rewriting the GOP health care plan in secret without any women or Democrats in the room. They have no plans to schedule open hearings or even give us the chance to read the bill before it comes to the floor. This process is undemocratic and just plain wrong.
My sister in the Senate, Claire McCaskill, has had enough. Here’s what she said to the GOP chairman of the Senate Finance Committee last week:
“We have no idea what’s being proposed [in the GOP’s health care bill]. There’s a group of guys in a back room somewhere that are making decisions.”
The response? An avalanche of right-wing attacks, claiming Claire was “ranting and raving” when she was just trying to do her job.
Claire is up for re-election next year, and she already had a target on her back before she chose courage, not courtesy. She stood up to ask the tough questions and demand answers of the Republicans in the Senate. Now, more than ever, she’s going to need our help to keep fighting.
The fate of the Affordable Care Act is on the line. The GOP is trying to ram through a plan to rip 23 million Americans off of their health care in secret — without giving the American people the chance to listen or weigh in.
It’s up to all of us to come together in the next few weeks to defeat this catastrophic bill once and for all.
In the meantime, we must show Claire that we’re standing with her. Our resistance to Trump hinges on the number of Democratic Senators we have in the chamber. Losing Claire’s voice would make it that much more difficult to stop bad legislation from making its way to Trump’s desk. We need her voice in the Senate today, tomorrow, and in 2018.
Thanks again for everything you do.
Kamala Harris
U.S. Senator, California
