Republicans Trying to Pry John McCain From His Sickbed to Gut Healthcare for Millions

On Monday, GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that the GOP’s much-maligned “Better Care Reconciliation Act” was headed toward a make-or-break vote in just 24 hours.

To hammer home how seriously Republicans were taking Tuesday’s vote, Majority Whip John Cornyn told reporters that GOP officials were working to secure permission for Senator John McCain to return to Washington in order to cast what may be a decisive “yea” vote.

Yes, that John McCain, the one who was diagnosed with a fast moving, malignant brain tumor less than one week earlier.

McCain, of course, has been convalescing in his home state of Arizona. Nevertheless, in a morbid stoke of irony, the GOP is desperate for an 80-year-old cancer patient whose very survival is due to his own robust healthcare coverage to approve a plan that would deny some 22-32 million Americans those same protections over the coming years.