Motions, speeches bash GOP secrecy

WASHINGTON — They threatened to slow the Senate’s work with procedural motions. They forced the chamber’s top Republican to swat aside reasonablesounding requests, like holding committee hearings. And they delivered speech after speech after speech.

Democrats used all those tools Monday evening to try drawing attention to the Senate GOP’s secretive effort to craft a bill scuttling President Barack Obama’s health care law and push it through the chamber by next week’s end. Their largely symbolic effort was likely to have little or no impact on how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell handles the measure.

Yet Democrats were hoping it would have at least two effects — scare off Republicans wavering over whether to back the measure, and show liberal activists that Democrats are aggressively trying to thwart the legislation, even though they lack the votes to derail it.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers seeking re- election next year “will reap the whirlwind” once voters learn about the legislation.

McConnell, R-Ky., is using closed-door meetings among Republicans to write a bill. In the sessions, lawmakers are trying to resolve internal GOP disputes over how to reduce the insurance coverage standards Obama’s law requires, cut the Medicaid health care program for the poor and cut taxes Obama levied on higher earners and the medical industry.

“The only thing more secret than Republicans’ health care bill is Donald Trump’s tax returns,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass.

Democrats are increasingly worried that McConnell will jam the bill through the Senate with little debate, limiting their chance to scrutinize the bill and whip up opposition against it.