BREAKING: Senate Votes to Begin Debating Obamacare Repeal

 The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been the target of Republican leaders and their base since its passage.  With full control Congress and the White House, they now hold the power to make changes. They are certain of their desire to remove the funding mechanism for ACA -- a tax on the wealthiest citizens -- everything else be damed including millions of citizens who will not be able to obtain or afford coverage.

On May 4th, the House GOP voted to take healthcare away from at least 23 million Americans according to the Congressional Budget Office report, which came after the vote was rushed through.

A group of Republican Senators operated in secrecy on the Senate's version of a "healthcare" bill to take away said healthcare from nearly 10% of the country and cut taxes on the wealthiest.  In late June, they unveiled a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with no healthcare for millions of individuals.  They fortunately failed to garner 50 votes and it failed in its current form in mid-July.

Now the latest today as Trump and Senate Republicans led by McConnell continue a push to take away healthcare from Americans with pre-existing conditions and those fellow citizens of ours who disgust the GOP by being poor.

The Senate narrowly voted on Tuesday to begin debate on a bill to repeal major provisions of the Affordable Care Act... Pence cast the tie-breaking vote.

...it is unclear whether Republicans will have the votes they need to uproot the law that has provided health insurance to millions of Americans. The Senate will now begin debating, amending and ultimately voting in the coming days on legislation that would have a profound impact on the American health care system.

Only two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted against the motion.

McConnell has been promoting and revising a comprehensive bill that would repeal the health law while also replacing it, but he has struggled to nail down the necessary support to pass that measure.  An alternative would be to pass a narrower bill that would repeal the health law without putting in place a replacement, but that approach has been greeted with objections from some Republicans as well.

ACTION:  Do not allow our leaders to play politics with our health.  If you agree, call your Representatives and Senators, Republican or Democrat, and urge them to step across party lines to optimize our healthcare system.  To block the repeal effort, we need three Republicans to join us.  Continue to Resist.  Continue to take part in Smart Dissent.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/us/politics/senate-health-care.html