EDITORIAL: Sad days in Senate

July 27--Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina hailed Tuesday's vote to proceed with debate on a health care bill.

"I am glad the Senate has finally begun to build a solution to the health care crisis facing our nation," the Republican from Winston-Salem said.

Begun to build a solution?

Sadly, Burr was right. Despite vowing for seven years to "repeal and replace Obamacare," Senate Republicans really just started to assemble their "solution" Tuesday. Or, really, to scrap it together from bits and pieces, in the form of proposed amendments offered on the floor, hoping to end up with something they can call a health care plan.

Not long before issuing his statement, Burr and other senators heard their most respected member, John McCain, passionately condemn this very process.

"We've tried to do this by coming up with a proposal behind closed doors in consultation with the administration, then springing it on skeptical members, trying to convince them it's better than nothing, asking us to swallow our doubts and force it past a unified opposition," McCain said. "I don't think that is going to work in the end. And it probably shouldn't."

McCain added drama to the day's events just by being there, 10 days after having a cancerous tumor removed from his brain in Arizona. His vote made a difference in keeping Republican hopes for a health care victory alive, but he quickly tried to dim them. He called for a "return to regular order" and for using the committee process to craft a bill with broad input and bipartisan support to "provide workable solutions to problems Americans are struggling with today."

That was a rebuke to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who's refused to include Democrats, hold hearings or even give senators much idea about what they'll be asked to vote on next. The goal is simply to hammer together any kind of Rube Goldberg contraption he can call a health care bill and send to it President Trump's desk. An effort Wednesday failed, as had a repeal-only vote Tuesday night.

Trump demands a bill, no matter what, as long as he can claim it replaces Obamacare. He's threatened Republican senators who won't go along -- when he hasn't been busy insulting his own attorney general -- and calls Democrats "obstructionists" even though they don't have enough power to block anything.

McCain had to remind senators about their role of checking presidential powers. "We are not the president's subordinates," he said. Most seem to think otherwise. Clearly, Trump does.

As a result, McConnell is putting the Senate through one of its saddest displays, shredding its historic status as a great deliberative body and trampling its own honored protocols. Its shabby partisanship will result in dreadful legislation, yet few who blindly support it care.

McCain's voice briefly rose above the low muttering but has yet to make a real impact. It was really just an appeal to conscience -- but made the sound of a tree falling in a distant forest.

Burr spoke for most Republicans: "It is my hope that at the end of this process we will pass legislation fulfilling our promise to the American people: repealing and replacing Obamacare."

But not a promise to improve people's health care.

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