>>It’ll be interesting to see how they manage to get Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee to vote for the same bill as the Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, and Lindsey Graham.<<
Going off-topic here, but that’s exactly why the argument that the filibuster encourages bipartisan legislation is such a crock.
In this example, the only way we’re going to get bi-partisanship is if the parties you cited can come together. As you imply, that will drag any result to the left, because we will be able to rely upon no Democrat votes.
But why zero Democrat votes? Because it takes at least eight of them to make a difference and that’s too big a number for the first three or four willing participants in the process to take a chance on. They stick their necks out for a good bill and it doesn’t pass and they get primaried for desertion.
But without the filibuster, a couple of relatively conservative Democrats (or at least from a conservative state) might consider offsetting the loss of Collins and Graham to get a good bill passed, have their names on it, be able to say to their constituents that they were on their side in DC, etc. In other words, we’d have a chance at a form of bi-partisanship that doesn’t automatically drag the bill to the left.
The filibuster is a pox on effective governing and absolutely needs to be jettisoned. Besides, we know the Dems will do it as soon as that’s required.
You are drifting rather far afield because the filibuster has nothing to do with this. The Senate is using reconciliation to vote on this, so all they need is 50 senators plus Pence to vote for it. They certainly don't have that if their bill is a near mirror image of the House bill.
This is going to be a train wreck. The Republicans have been making promises - lower premiums, better coverage, more choices, pre-existing conditions covered - that they can't keep. Trumpcare will do un to them what Obamacare did to the Democrats.