Donald Trump and Mike Pence are revved up for repeal and have been working the phones to get the 50 Senate votes necessary so Pence can cast the tie-breaker, according to Tuesday's traveling press pool report.
Perhaps most importantly, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a co-sponsor of the repeal bill, told the pooler that he would let his buddy John McCain speak for himself but also indicated that he's feeling good about it. Of course, McCain famously cast the vote that killed the last effort and has continued to pound on the theme that the Senate must return to regular order. In fact, Monday he took to the floor to blast the bogus process that birthed the very bill Graham is now suggesting he might vote for—a bill that won’t even get a full scoring from the CBO due to the GOP rush job.
Perhaps McCain should have had a chart next to him on the Senate floor with a HUGE ASTERISK reading "**unless that POS bill was authored by my bestie, Lindsey—then I don’t care."
On Monday night, Trump reportedly called Graham to give him a pep talk. Meanwhile, Pence has been trying to move conservative Democrats like West Virginia's Joe Manchin and moderate Republicans like Lisa Murkowski into the "yes" column. In particular, Pence has tried to sway Alaska's Independent Governor, Bill Walker, who has voiced concerns about the bill, in order to ease the path for Murkowski's support.
Pence was headed to Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon to lunch with Republican senators and planned to tell them: "This is the moment. Now is the time. We have 12 days."
Wow, so aspirational—not "Now is our time to secure healthcare coverage for future generations!" but "Now is the time, we have 12 days left." Inspiring, isn't it?
Also, Pence is pretty proud of the GOP support he's apparently garnered for the health care repeal measure. "I have got Alan Greenspan, Jeb Bush and Steve Bannon" behind this bill, he said. "If anyone can do better I'd like to meet them."
How about someone who knows something about health policy? What about the American Medical Association (AMA) or the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)?