Indivisibles,
Senate Republicans want to vote on their Medicaid-slashing, billionaire-enriching reconciliation bill this weekend, and that means “vote-a-rama” — when senators can propose endless changes that their colleagues then need to vote on — could start as soon as tomorrow.
If all Republicans stick together, Democrats simply don’t have the numbers to stop the bill from passing; that’s why the GOP is using reconciliation in the first place. But that doesn’t mean Senate Democrats are powerless.
Your Democratic senators can make voting on this bill slower, more divisive, and more politically damaging than any vote these Republicans have ever taken. In fact, that’s what this moment demands of them and what we expect.
Because as we’ve said from the beginning, the longer we can drag this process out, the more we can toxify a bill that Republicans are already publicly tearing apart. And the more we can toxify the bill, the better the chance we can ultimately defeat it.
Here are two steps to have an impact…
Step 1: Call your Dem senator
Our sources on Capitol Hill are hearing that Senator Schumer and the Democratic brass haven’t committed to dragging this vote to a grinding, screeching, clanking halt. They’re acting like the MAGA bill is business as usual, and we know it’s anything but.
Some of our Democratic Senators need a wake-up call from their constituents ASAP; others just need a reminder that we’ll have their backs when they fight as hard as possible. We’ve provided a script and will connect you to the right office, but you need to make the call.
Step 2: Share your own amendment
The vote-a-rama process we mentioned above allows Senate Democrats to propose change after change to this bill, with virtually no limit on how many painful votes they can force Republicans to take.
We want to see as many amendments offered as possible, and we’re calling on this community to help craft some and share them with your senators! Be creative. Go wild. Just try to focus them on taxes and spending — because that’s all that can go into a reconciliation bill.
Your amendment could be something like:
An amendment to transfer all the dollars for ICE funding to NPR and PBS, instead
An amendment to tax recipients of luxury jets gifted by foreign governments at 100% of the jet’s market value
An amendment to cut every lawmaker’s salary and per diem by the same percentage SNAP gets cut
Some of your suggestions may be silly. Some may be poignant. Some will be genuinely good policy. Pretty much all of them will be better than the disaster MAGA Republicans want to force on us, so don’t be shy:
We won’t lie to you: Delaying and disrupting this reconciliation process with politically toxic votes and high-powered floor speeches may or may not help flip the Republican votes needed to kill the bill. But without a doubt, it will highlight how harmful the GOP agenda is and create moments that help swell our resistance movement.
And that’s a huge deal — because this bill heads back to the House if it passes the Senate, and we’ll keep on fighting it there, too. We’re in this fight for the long haul, and we’re glad to have you on our side.
Thank you,
Indivisible Team
P.S. We’re still placing thousands of calls to Senate offices, sponsoring dozens of billboards, and contacting millions of people in battleground states to oppose this bill and hold Republican senators accountable. If you’re able, please chip in to fund our billboards and nationwide organizing work that’ll make sure Republicans pay a political price.
