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Senate Democrats ramped up opposition Monday to the emerging Republican health-care bill, launching a series of mostly symbolic moves including speeches that went late into the evening and a push to slow other Senate business to a crawl. The aim, Democrats said, was to draw attention to the secretive process Republican leaders are using to craft their bill and argue that the GOP proposals would hurt Americans. The Democrats lack the power to prevent a vote and they don’t have the numbers to defeat a bill without Republican defections. So they are focusing this week on nonbinding protests. (Sullivan, 6/19)

Senate Democrats are stepping up their attacks on the GOP's push to repeal and replace ObamaCare as the legislative battle enters a critical two-week stretch. Democrats can’t block a healthcare bill on their own, but are threatening to shut down the Senate in retaliation for Republicans negotiating their legislation in a string of closed-door GOP-only meetings. The move, they hope, will put Republicans on the defense as they look to force a vote as soon as next week, when lawmakers will leave for the July 4th recess. (Carney, 6/19)

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) became the latest Democratic senator to use President Trump's own words against him on Monday evening.  "It went from great to mean. In the Rose Garden it was 'great.' Now just a few weeks later that same great bill is 'mean,'" Franken said from the Senate floor.  Several Democratic senators have referenced Trump's comments made to Senate Republicans during a closed-door meeting last week, during which he knocked the House bill and urged senators to be more generous.  (Carney, 6/19)

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette on Monday called for a stop to the “hyperpartisan” politics she says are fueling the GOP health care bill that — along with President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts — would slash money from programs that help more than half a million Colorado children...Her comments come as the U.S. Senate is working on its version of the U.S. House-passed American Health Care Act, Republicans’ response to the president’s promise to repeal and replace Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Congressional Democrats have lambasted their GOP counterparts for not holding hearings on the bill, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has said he hopes to have passed before the Senate’s July 4 recess. (Paul, 6/19)

U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH, said Monday that Senate Republican leaders are working on an Obamacare replacement plan behind closed doors because they know the emerging “Trumpcare” bill will be widely unpopular. "What we’re concerned about is we’re hearing we may not see this secret bill until they put it on the floor for a final vote," she said. Hassan and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, were at opposite ends of the state to promote the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion in the fight against the opioid and heroin epidemic. Shaheen visited Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester. Hassan toured Serenity Place with its director, Stephanie Bergeron, and Manchester Fire Chief Daniel Goonan. (Tuohy, 6/19)

Recently attacking the American Health Care Act, the House GOP replacement for Obamacare, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi made a new assertion – that it would cost 1.8 million jobs. She seemed to be turning a standard GOP attack line on its head – that the Affordable Care Act was a job killer. In 2010, Pelosi also famously once predicted that Obamacare would “create 4 million jobs, 400,000 jobs almost immediately.” She was citing an optimistic study at the time, and economists will argue forever whether the law spurred employment or was a drag on it. But recent research indicates that, contrary to the spin by both sides, the ACA had minimal effect on employment, hours of work and compensation. (Kessler, 6/20)