Birch: I Applaud John McCain’s ACA Vote

By Deborah Birch

I applaud Senator John McCain for sticking to his convictions and voting no on the “Skinny Repeal” bill, which wasn’t even a repeal and does nothing. He made it quite clear that bipartisan cooperation is required to get his vote, and it is sad that this even needs to be stated.

Everyone standing up and applauding his floor speech calling for that cooperation are also a lot of the same people now criticizing him for voting no when he is trying to reach across the aisle. It’s not a defense of the Affordable Care Act, it’s a call to his colleagues (on the left and right) to get their heads out of the sand and actually try and work together.
 
I’m tired of the constant flame-throwing nature of politics. It’s why I left working in the political world.

The left doesn’t have the perfect answer and neither does the right. 

The ACA is not perfect and needs to be fixed. This can’t be accomplished by just saying to repeal the whole thing without offering a viable alternative.

Sometimes it takes a giant in Congress to serve a wake up call to his colleagues that regular order should be restored. If there is a man for the job, I can think of no one better than Senator McCain.

[Background: Senate Rejects Slimmed-Down Obamacare Repeal As McCain Votes No]

Deborah Birch is a Media Operations Analyst who attended Hollins University and is from Vienna, Virginia. She currently lives in Boston, MA.