While You Were Sleeping Senate Republicans Passed a Resolution to Let Them Pull the Plug on Obamacare

GOP Marks for Death All the Parts of the Affordable Care Act Trump Promised to Keep

For more than seven hours Senate Democrats fought the GOP majority in an overnight battle to try to save Obamacare, or at least protect the parts most Americans say they want to keep, but it was an exercise in futility. By 1:25 AM Thursday morning, Senate Republicans defeated every single Democratic amendment, and passed a budget resolution that will allow them to pull the plug on Obamacare. The vote was 51-48. Because Republicans are claiming this is a budget resolution, only a simple majority was needed.

Above video: Democrats defy Senate rules to explain why they are voting against the resolution to kill Obamacare. Forward to final 8 minutes to watch Dems defend constituents and Obamacare.

Despite promises from leading Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump, gone will be the ability for parents to keep their children on their health insurance until age 26, gone will be the ban on insurance companies refusing to pay for pre-existing conditions — including pregnancy, cancer, HIV, and diabetes, gone will be the mandate that insurers must pay for contraception coverage. Democrats filed amendments to save them all, all were defeated.

Here’s Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s impassioned plea to Republicans to protect women’s healthcare: “If you love your mothers and daughters and wives, please do not unwind the ACA. We need women’s health protected.”

In short, Republicans showed that under cover of darkness, literally while America slept, they wanted to massacre healthcare in America, and so they did. 

Senator Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, cast the final deciding vote:

The overnight action was largely procedural, so Obamacare is not dead yet, just on the table headed to the operating room where its opponents will perform the necessary operations before pulling the plug, leaving 30 million people uninsured. But there are several steps lawmakers still have to take. But the roadblocks are few.

They have no legitimate replacement plan, so despite Donald Trump’s promises, tens of millions will lose coverage. Any possible substitution will not offer a “seamless” transition, as the President-elect promised on “60 Minutes” after winning the election.

If you want to contact your Senators, you can call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

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