Murphy and Blumenthal Rally Opposition to Obamacare Overhaul as Republicans Delay Vote

June 27--As support for a Republican repeal of Obamacare fell apart Tuesday, Connecticut's two Democratic senators were at the forefront of the emotional opposition.

Early Tuesday afternoon, just minutes before Republicans abruptly put off a vote on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, Sen. Chris Murphy stood on the steps of the Capitol holding a photograph of Antonio Davis, an 18-month-old from Stamford whose mother relies on Medicaid to pay for his treatment for a rare disease.

Davis' mother, Kamera Dukes, wrote to Murphy's office after the House passed legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

"I am begging you and your fellow Senators on the USA to vote this bill down on the Senate floor. Do not allow this monstrosity to become a law in our great nation," she wrote.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer surveyed the photographs the members of his caucus were holding and said "this is who we are fighting for."

Earlier on Tuesday Murphy and U.S. Sen Richard Blumenthal joined a recovering addict from West Virginia at a Senate Democrats press conference highlighting how cuts to Medicaid would impact treatment for opioid addiction.

Hours after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported the Senate Republican health care bill would lead to 22 million more uninsured Americans by 2026, Connecticut's two senators spoke on the Senate floor late Monday night, urging their GOP colleagues to postpone a vote on the legislation planned for this week.

"None of us can look our constituents in the eye, look at ourselves in the mirror, look inside our hearts and justify a vote for this bill," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

Blumenthal stood in front of a photograph of a young Connecticut girl whose family relied on Medicaid for the expensive medical treatments she required. The girl's mother had testified at what Blumenthal called an "emergency field hearing" he held on the Senate bill.

"Medicaid has been the path for them to success," Blumenthal said. "That rug will be pulled from that family."

Murphy said the Senate bill did little more than solve a political problem for Republicans who had been campaigning for years on repealing the Affordable Care Act. He repeated a quote from Sen. Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma who told Talking Points Memo when asked about the legislation "I'm not sure what it does. I just know it's better than Obamacare."

Murphy said he was ready and willing to work with Republicans on health care.

"We don't want to blow up Medicaid, we're not with you on that ... but we get that you want some flexibility for states, we get that you want maybe an additional plan offered on the exchanges that doesn't have all the bells and whistles," he said.

"Our hope is that with this CBO score, maybe it will be the straw that breaks the camel's back that will cause our Republican colleagues to give up his nonsensical approach to health care reform and work with us," Murphy said.

Late Monday night, Sen. Cory Booker, and Rep. John Lewis held an impromptu "sit-in" on the steps of the Capitol. They were soon joined by other Democrats including Sen. Murphy.

Sitting on the steps, they passed around and iPhone and broadcast live on Facebook to talk about the Republican health care bill.

The crowd grew and the Democrats were joined by advocates and others who shared their own personal health care stories.

"People streaming to the Capitol," Murphy said in a tweet after 10 p.m. "Crowd getting bigger and bigger and bigger."

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