One of the primary problems associated with writing a bill in secret is that not a whole lot of people will know what’s actually in said bill. To be fair, every time the latest incarnation of this particular bill is unveiled, it reveals that it’ll probably kill a bunch of people. So maybe it’s better hidden. But even that might not be as confusing as being expected to have a procedural vote without actually being told what you’ll be voting on.
Trump has been increasing pressure on Senate Republicans to repeal Obamacare under threat of, “Repercussions … far greater than any of them understand!” What those repercussions may be, probably the president himself doesn’t know, but Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is evidently going to push through a procedural vote tomorrow, per The NYT. The only problem? It’s unclear which bill they’ll be voting to the floor. Nobody has made it clear whether they’ll be voting on the House healthcare bill that will repeal and replace, or if they’ll simply be voting to repeal.
You see, McConnell could decide to vote to begin debate on the House bill that recently passed but was killed in the Senate. If that began, they could work towards the repeal and replace they’ve been talking about forever. But if they can at least get that bill into debate, McConnell can quickly replace that bill with a repeal-only bill he’d expect to fail like one that repeals Obamacare without replacing it, and then use that momentum to begin talks about their closed-door bill.
While they’ve promised to let Republican lawmakers know which bill they’ll be voting on before the vote, nobody knows how much of a heads-up they’re going to get. Who says American politics are corrupt and convoluted?