Democrats Fight for Collapsing Status Quo on Health Care

Senate Democrats took the next step in what President Donald Trump has dubbed to be their “obstruction” campaign Monday evening: grinding the Senate Chamber to a screeching halt with a late-night Obamacare talkathon.

Under Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s guidance, Democratic senators have obstinately refused to work with Republicans on crafting a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare and alleviate the escalating burden for millions of Americans caused by the behemoth law.

“If Republicans won’t relent and debate their health care bill in the open for the American people to see, then they shouldn’t expect business as usual in the Senate,” Schumer said in a statement Monday. “Republicans are drafting this bill in secret because they’re ashamed of it, plain and simple.”

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Democrats planned to hold their seats well into the night while offering an array of fiery speeches and social media postings about how the GOP’s undisclosed plan would ruin the country and cause “people to die,” as they’ve repeatedly insisted.

Democrats have claimed they want the GOP-led process to be more transparent. The more obvious goal, however, is to cause Republicans to miss a July 4 goal to bring the measure to a vote — and jeopardize the chances for a bill to be passed before the August recess.

“These are merely the first steps we’re prepared to take in order to shine a light on this shameful Trumpcare bill and reveal to the public the GOP’s true intentions: to give the uber-wealthy a tax break while making middle-class Americans pay more for less health care coverage,” Schumer claimed Monday.

“Democrats are never going to work with Republicans,” said Dr. Ramin Oskoui, a leading cardiologist in the Washington, D.C., area and senior health care adviser to LifeZette.

“The reason they want to see the bill is that they want to get their talking points figured out earlier than later. They have no interest in working on this,” Oskoui said. “They know the longer they delay, the worse it is for Republicans.”

With the impending summer recess looming over the horizon, GOP senators face the dismal possibility of either going on vacation without getting any substantial work done on Trump’s legislative agenda, or forgoing their recess until the job is done. Either way, the Democrats have offered nothing but obstruction.

GOP senators seem to grasp the sense of urgency with which the American people are anticipating relief from Obamacare’s so-called “death spiral.” In a Twitter video released Monday, several Senate Republicans blasted Democrats’ obstructionism.

“Obamacare has taken a heavy toll on folks throughout the country,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said.

“It has caused chaos and confusion,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) added.

“The status quo is unsustainable. Are you ok with that?” McConnell asked.

“Are you ok with the status quo? I’m not,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Miss.) responded.

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GOP senators have floated the idea of forgoing their summer recess in August to deliver a health care solution.

Oskoui said he expects the media and Democrats to try to blame Republicans for Obamacare’s continuing collapse regardless.

“I see continued stagnation and I see the person who’s going to suffer for it will ultimately be — because the media [are] going to spin it this way quite successfully, and frankly quite easily — Congressional Republicans and President Trump,” Oskoui said.

“And President Trump is going to unfortunately need to pick up the football and do what he can do as an executive and use his bully pulpit to get Congress to work. That’s what has to happen,” Oskoui added. “These guys will never fix anything. They’re the problem. They’re not the solution, regrettably.”

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If the Democrats continue to stall and the Republicans fail to come up with a decent bill, Oskoui said that the biggest loser “ultimately is the American people, who are seeing real out-of-pocket expenses rise, taxes rise, wages stagnate, and they’re not seeing President Trump get his agenda passed,” Oskoui said.

“If Trump doesn’t do the few things he can do alone, he’s going to be one of the big victims of this as well, which frankly the swamp wants,” Oskoui said. “Donald Trump, I think, is stuck … unless you solve health care in terms of cost.”

“And remember, the Democrats have a tremendous advantage Republicans will never have. They’ve got the mainstream media that will lie, cheat or steal for them, will paint anything favorably toward them — even though they’re a large part to blame for the situation we’re in now,” Oskoui said. “They’re even happier to take a month off in August where they really should be hammering this out and getting this done.”