Amy Walter:
Well, I think there’s — we’re at this point where it’s too big to fail and that there isn’t much choice now for senators in what they’re able to be able to carve out.
But I think what Tam brought up with Senator Hawley is a really good point, which is here’s a great opportunity for you as an elected member to show your constituents that you really care about a certain issue. You can make the argument that you brought it in front of the president, the president made accommodations to you. This is a very good political tool.
I think what we’re seeing with that response from Senator Ernst is also an example of the fight that is going to be happening, and it is already happening, over the marketing around this bill. Republicans are convinced that many of these town halls — this was her response was in a town hall that was very — that it wasn’t exactly a friendly audience.
And their perspective is, these are just liberal activists, these are not regular voters. Once regular voters understand we’re only talking about waste and abuse, we’re not talking about kicking needy people over Medicaid, we will win, the polls show this.
Democrats, of course, feel very differently. They say the polls show that Medicaid is really popular, we’re going to make this the centerpiece of our campaign.
And so the fight now is on to really define the bill, but internally, on Capitol Hill, I think the reality is, it is going to be something that not everybody is going to like, but they have to pass it.
