The likeliest is Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the only Republican to vote "no" last time. Trump has punked him with a stream of personal insults. Corker is not running for re-election. Like all other potential swing votes, he is no doubt being promised the world to vote "yes."
Next might be Maine's Susan Collins. She voted against gutting Obamacare. Her first "yes" vote on the tax bill reportedly was based on promises from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that Medicare and Social Security would be protected. But co-perpetrator and House Speaker Paul Ryan's life mission has been to destroy both. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, among others, proudly proclaims that this will start the process.
Why anyone would believe anything the GOP leadership says is hard to fathom. Maine's struggling elder community, among others, has displayed great anger, including heated demonstrations at Collins' office and her public appearances. She must know that if she votes "yes" again, she will drown forever in an unforgiving grass-roots tsunami.
Arizona's Jeff Flake has been yet another target of Trump's venal abuse. Flake dramatically announced he won't run for re-election. But then he voted for the tax bill. Why?
Arizona's John McCain did the same. The "Great Maverick" cast the decisive vote to save Obamacare. He's been undergoing what must be a hugely expensive course of treatment for brain cancer.
This may be among the last votes McCain casts, and it's likely a death sentence for millions of Americans who can't afford the kind of health care he's been getting. Does he care?
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin hinted at opposing the first draft based on its rough treatment of small business. But apparently his good friend Paul Ryan found Johnson's price.
Alaska's Lisa Murkowski voted against destroying Obamacare. But she's ecstatic about this bill's death sentence for the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, where her biggest donors want to drill for oil and further heat the planet.
Maybe other Republicans can be turned. Trump's minions surely have scoured every GOP wish list. And they have no intention of waiting for Doug Jones to take his seat.
But somewhere, somehow, amid the warm glow of the Alabama turn, we must find a way to stop this bill.
Here are just a few reasons why:
-- It enacts one of history's most blatant thefts of essential resources from working- and middle-class Americans to the rich and super-rich. Trump himself would profit.
-- It worsens the kind of wealth gap that fed the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed.
-- It guts Obamacare, leaving tens of millions without medical coverage while facing needless disease -- and possibly death -- for themselves and their children.
-- It opens the all-out GOP assault on Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, with the impoverishment of millions sure to follow.
-- It attacks public education with massive supports for private schools that will profit Trump cronies like Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
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