Rachel Sadon
House Speaker Paul Ryan walks to the House chamber ahead of a budget vote on Capitol Hill on May 3, 2017. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
The House of Representatives voted 217-213 on a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare essentially on party lines, with 20 Republicans joining Democrats to vote against the American Health Care Act.
In the frat House that is our national government, Democrats taunted their colleagues with the immortal lyrics of “Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey Goodbye” (the implication being that they’ll lose their seats over this), while cases of Bud Light were being wheeled into the U.S. Capitol. Meanwhile, frat President Donald J. Trump is having a victory party at the White House.
Democrats sang “na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye” to Republicans on the House floor after the health care vote pic.twitter.com/QInaAm0eJ6
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 4, 2017
Cases upon cases of beer just rolled into the Capitol on a cart covered in a sheet. Spotted Bud Light peeking out from the sheet
— Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe) May 4, 2017
If victorious, Republicans will be having a big press conference at the beautiful Rose Garden of the White House immediately after vote!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2017
Hometown hero Jason Chaffetz scooted in after having foot surgery to cast his vote for a bill that wouldn’t ultimately affect him; the legislation includes an exemption for Congressional representatives and their staffs. Rep. Tom MacArthur has said the loophole will be closed, but it remained in the bill voted on today (supposedly it will be addressed in separate legislation).
Chaffetz Scoots In For Health Care Vote After Surgery – photo by @billclarkphotos pic.twitter.com/JYbfNI21Yh
— Gillian Roberts (@gkroberts) May 4, 2017
The New York Time’s The Upshoot has a good rundown of how the American Health Care Act would change Obamacare by allowing states to opt out of some protections for preexisting conditions (rape, postpartum depression, and cesarean sections among them) and remove the limits on age rating, and making major changes to Medicaid.
An earlier version of the bill—the one that flopped in a heap at the end of March—estimated that it would save the government billions at the cost of 24 million people losing their healthcare, but that kind of rigorous analysis has not yet been done by the Congressional Budget Office (the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the new bill would result in 17.5 million people losing coverage, but it is unclear at what cost).
“After I pick my jaw up, there’s just no conceivable way it makes sense to vote for or against something until you know what effects it would have,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the independent CRFB told the Washington Post before the House GOP did just that. “These are really important issues in terms of the costs, the coverage, the incentives, and we want to get those things right. We can’t do it by flying blind.”
Anyway, this thing is now in the hands of the Senate, where they’ll have to wait for that CBO analysis and it faces significant hurdles. From Vox:
“‘No,’ Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told me plainly when I asked him this week if Senate Republicans were close to a cohesive plan that their conference would support.
In the meantime, feel free to watch the president and Paul Ryan gloat.
