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Senate Democrats are using a very exact strategy to make Senate Republicans pay for supporting a bill that they don’t seem to like very much, because they are afraid of Donald Trump.
Lawrence O’Donnell said on MSNBC:
But what they’re trying to do with these amendments is target them even more specifically and make it even more vivid what Republicans are actually willing to do and what their bill will do. This means that Republicans, if their bill passes and Donald Trump signs it, they will be signing a law.
That allows food benefits to be taken away from children under 12 years old in this country.
O’Donnell later continued while talking to Sen. Slotkin (D-MI):
Senator, these amendments that I’ve been reading as they’ve been coming through from your Democratic colleagues are so precise and they are so vivid.
The idea of giving the Republicans an opportunity to vote to guarantee that Medicaid will not be taken away from a woman in a hospital who has just delivered a baby. That for that day, at least for delivery day in the hospital, at least you can be sure that your Medicaid will not be taken away from you or the baby you just delivered.
And Republicans said, no. They voted specifically to be able to cut Medicaid on the day a woman has given birth in a hospital and cut Medicaid benefits from that baby who was just born in a hospital. That’s how precise these amendments are and they seem to really highlight how far Republicans are willing to go.
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Democrats aren’t making up imaginary scenarios. These are real-world situations that will happen if the bill becomes law.
It is important to understand that Democrats are using all the power that they have to educate, inform, and lay the groundwork for Republicans to be held accountable for supporting this legislation.
Democrats can’t stop the bill on their own, but what they can do is highlight how far Republicans are willing to go, how Republicans have no moral qualms about hurting people to provide tax breaks for the super wealthy.
The fact that Senate Republicans are more afraid of Trump than of harming the people that they are supposed to represent is grounds enough for each one of them to be voted out of office the next time they are up for reelection.
What do you think of the Democratic strategy? Share your thoughts in the comments below.