In other news, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has pardoned the former 9/11 recovery worker who's being threatened with deportation. He could still be deported.
Meanwhile, Senators Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz say they're not ready to vote for the Senate GOP deathcare bill because it's not cruel enough.
Finally, President Obama has released a statement on the Senate bill. You can read full statement here.
The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill. It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else. Those with private insurance will experience higher premiums and higher deductibles, with lower tax credits to help working families cover the costs, even as their plans might no longer cover pregnancy, mental health care, or expensive prescriptions. Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions could become the norm again. Millions of families will lose coverage entirely.
Simply put, if there’s a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family – this bill will do you harm. And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.