"Nuclear grade bonkers": GOP holds midnight vote on health care bill they wrote over lunch

While the bill was originally pitched as a “skinny” repeal, the version ultimately released is a robust gutting of the American health care system that defunds Planned Parenthood and threatens coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut summarized the dead of night vote. “It is nuclear grade bonkers what is happening tonight.”

MURPHY: This process is an embarrassment. This is nuclear grade bonkers what it happening tonight. We are about to re-order one fifth of the American health care system and we are going to have two hours to review a bill which at first blush stands essentially as health care system arson. This bill is lighting the American health care system on fire with intentionality. To use the word freedom at its center. There is freedom in this bill. The freedom to go bankrupt. The freedom to get sick and not find a doctor. There is freedom in this bill to die early. That’s not hyperbole guys, when overnight 16 million people lose insurance.

The GOP bill will be voted on with only a partial CBO score, meaning the full impact on coverage and our economy is unknown. This fact doesn’t seem to bother Republicans though, who have been attempting to repeal Obamacare for seven years.

Reports suggest that multiple Republican Senators who have been no votes on previous attempts to repeal have been mollified by phone calls from Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who assured them that fixes will be made in conference, and the bill they intend to vote on will not become actual law.

That’s an incredible gamble to make with the lives of American men and women — and it will look even more sinister in the light of the morning.