RUSH: The Senate has presented its version of the Obamacare repeal and replace bill. Mitch McConnell announced it from the floor of the Senate. We will have a preliminary review in details, just the beginning of the process. The Drive-By Media already has push polls out saying how much the American people hate it. They don’t even know about it yet, but our friends in the Drive-Bys have got a push poll out; Americans think that the Republican health care bill will kill people and hurt people. Big surprise.

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RUSH: Now, ladies and gentlemen, a little helpful reminder. So McConnell goes out today on the floor of the Senate; he announces the Republican Senate version of the repeal Obamacare bill. Now, the initial thing that people do is wait for Democrats to react, and Chuck You Schumer did. He went out and reacted on the Senate floor. Wrong thing to do, folks. The place to watch is the media, not the Democrats. If you want to see what the reaction is, and if you went to learn what the Democrat battle plan is going to be, you must watch the media reaction.

You must read the AP. You must pay attention to CNN, New York Times — painful though it might be. I’m saying this is an option. If you want to find out what the reaction is, it’s not prudent today to go to Democrats. They are the arm of the primary power. It’s kind of like back in the old days, we had Kremlin-watching. We would watch the Kremlin. Whenever the Politburo would line up for some outdoor ceremony, you’d have Gorbachev there or Brezhnev or Khrushchev, whoever.

They’d line up there as they watched their missiles go by, kind of like Kim Jong-un does, and that was Kremlin-watching, and you watched who wasn’t there, who maybe had been demoted, who’d been assassinated, who wasn’t there. That was from whom we took our cues, the Kremlin. And the media is, in this analogy, the Kremlin. That’s what you have to do to follow the reaction to this.

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Back to this health care plan that McConnell announced. We’re still in the early stages, folks. It hasn’t even been presented officially yet. When that happens, McConnell says there’s gonna be debate, there will be amendments offered. It’s the beginning all of work in progress. But the Drive-Bys, they were waiting for this because the news leaked that the health care bill was coming. So they were able to denounce it before McConnell even started speaking.

As McConnell started speaking, the Drive-Bys started trickling out their response. AP and Reuters, the New York Times, the Washington Post unanimous in saying that the Republican bill in the Senate is mean-spirited, that it will hurt people, and that it won’t work. The same people who told us that Obamacare was brilliant. The same people that told us, along with Obama, if you like your doctor, you get to keep your doctor. If you like your plan, you get to keep your plan.

The same people that told us that Obama’s health care plan was brilliant and it was gonna insure the uninsurable, and it was gonna heal the unhealable and it was gonna make well the sick. It was gonna do all these miraculous things and it was not gonna cost any new money, oh, it was so wonderful. Of course, it was all BS. Reuters even has one of their patented push polls out. I mentioned this earlier. The headline of the Reuters story: “Most Americans Say Republican Healthcare Plan Will Be Harmful.”

Most Americans haven’t even seen it! It has not actually been formally presented. This is exactly how they do it in the Drive-Bys. Because most low-information people are not gonna know it hasn’t been presented. They’re gonna see this: “Most Americans Say Republican Healthcare Plan Will Be Harmful.” Gonna assume that everybody else but them knows about it.

Although I’m becoming less and less certain that the Drive-Bys have the easy path to success today that they’ve always had. I think one of the great unwritten stories is the anger at the media, the continued trust that they have lost. I don’t think they’re nearly the unbeatable behemoth they have been. Still powerful, don’t misunderstand, but we’re in the midst of — I mean, there’s massive change taking place. The inside-the-Beltway people don’t see it ’cause they don’t want to see it.

It’s positive change. It is not being reported on because the people who are being victimized by this change, traditional establishment types, don’t want to see it and don’t want to admit that it’s happening. But this is classic. “Most Americans Say Republican Healthcare Plan Will Be Harmful.” What kind of a poll is this? Reuters has been among the loudest in the Democrat-media complex screaming about how the Republican bill has been kept secret. Reuters has been leading the charge that the Republicans won’t let anybody see it. And yet their story features a push poll: “Most Americans Say Republican Healthcare Plan Will Be Harmful.”

My guess is if we get back and look, Reuters ran similar polls of Obama except with the opposite result: Most Americans eager to see Obamacare implemented. Most Americans applauding Obamacare. Predictable.

Now, here are some of the elements of this bill, and it’s very early, premature. I’m just gonna bullet-point this as far as what Mitch McConnell said on the floor of the Senate. The Senate bill, as it will be presented, written, gets rid of all Obamacare taxes. It will keep coverage for people with preexisting conditions, and it will continue to cover adult children on their parents’ plan up to age 26.

Health savings accounts will be enhanced and strengthened. States will now have the choice of what to cover. Unlike the federal government mandating what is covered, the states will be able to choose what is covered. Billions of dollars are gonna be spent stabilizing the insurance markets because, I mean, Aetna announced today or yesterday they’re pulling out of another couple of Obamacare exchanges, I think one the federal exchange.

In addition, McConnell said the individual mandate is gone in the Senate bill. And so is the employer mandate. Now, those are both good. If that happens, if both those happen, that’s excellent, that’s good. But the employer mandate is especially worthy of note. The employer mandate, under Obamacare, requires employers to provide health care or health insurance. But there are some exceptions. And that is you don’t have to provide for part time workers, and if your company is relatively small, you’re exempted from other aspects.

This is what has led to many American employees being downsized to 29 hours a week, because the threshold was 30 hours. If an employee worked 30 hours or more, the company had to cover ’em. If they worked 29 hours or less, the company didn’t. And so this led many American companies, corporations large and small, to change the structure of their employment so that more and more people were working part time and therefore weren’t covered. McConnell says we’re getting rid of both of those.

Now, the AP: “Senate GOP Would Halt Obamacare Penalties, Taxes — Departing from the House-approved version of the legislation … the Senate plan would drop the House bill’s waivers allowing states to let insurers boost premiums on some people with pre-existing conditions.”

Reuters is literally apoplectic. “Senate Health Care Bill Expected to Cut Back Medicaid Expansion.” And here is their poll story. “Most Americans Say Republican Health Care Plan Will Be Harmful — Forty-one percent of American adults oppose the House plan, while 30 percent support it. Another 29 percent said they ‘don’t know.'” When you add the Senate bill to it, the American people are downright scared to death.

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield has exited the health care exchange. They said yesterday they’re pulling out of the federal health care exchange in Wisconsin. Anthem is a major health insurer in Wisconsin and blamed a volatile market for the decision, said it will not offer individual plans in Wisconsin next year except for one in Menominee County that won’t be sold through the health care exchange that states had to set up as a part of Obamacare.

In other words, that plan’s it is not affected by volatile market, they don’t have to play ball in it. In other words, this has everything to do with the Obamacare exchanges, not the volatile market. The Obamacare exchanges are what’s not working, not the volatile market. Note the little dig at the market. The market volatility is such that Aetna had to pull out.

That’s not why they’re pulling out. They’re pulling out because of the exchanges. They’re pulling out because when you have to raise your premium cost 43%, how many policies are you gonna sell, for crying out loud? Anyway, that’s a brief overview on that. We, of course, will be on top of this as more information is divulged.

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RUSH: Folks, let me tell you what’s going on with this Obamacare repeal and replace stuff. This is before we get a final result. It may be something that we’re not crazy about, we don’t know. But that’s for later. What’s happening right now in the real world, to understand this, as I said, you have to watch the media, like the Reuters poll, the push poll that shows a majority of Americans think the Republican health care bill will harm people. They don’t know. I mean it’s this kind of bias and bogus misrepresentation, because here is why.

Gutting Obamacare is gutting the Obama presidency. Gutting Obamacare, repealing it and replacing it, just the very attempt, and it’s gonna succeed to some extent, there’s going to be something. I don’t know whether we’re gonna like it or not, but what is happening is that the signature legacy of Barack Obama is about to be gutted from American politics and American society. This is in effect gutting the Obama legacy, and this will not stand as far as the media is concerned and as far as the Democrats. This will not stand. This will not be permitted.

They will do everything they can to preserve and protect the Obama legacy. And going after health care — it’s taken the Republicans awhile to get there, and don’t think for a minute the election in Georgia is not a factor, because the Republicans now, they don’t really have an excuse. The Democrats can’t win elections. The Republicans are winning. There’s no excuse now for continuing to sit on the sidelines.

This is not to say, you know, I’m not an idiot. I’m not saying the Republicans are on board. I’m saying the Republicans are now gonna make it look like they are trying to move the Trump agenda. Whether they do or not, time will tell. But they can’t afford to sit on the sidelines and wait for Pence, which is what many of them have been doing. The theory that Trump’s gonna be gone, they’re gonna get rid of him, they’re gonna impeach him, Trump’s gone. This has been a popular, and in some cases even on our side, a hoped-for eventuality. But that ain’t gonna happen.

Even David “Rodham” Gergen is saying not only are we not gonna get rid of the guy, if we’re not careful, he’s gonna be reelected. David “Rodham” Gergen is already now worried that Trump’s cruising to reelection. So, you see, this Ossoff thing is had a dramatic behind the scenes and in the deep, dark crevices of their souls. And they’re now going after Obamacare.

You know what this is? It is essentially redoing 2008 and 2012, as far as the Democrats are concerned. This is about erasing Obama. If you get rid of Obamacare, you erase the signature legacy of Barack Obama, and you know how protective these people are of Obama for all of the reasons they’re protective. And so they are beside themselves. They thought they were gonna have Trump in jail by now. And instead Jeh Johnson’s out there saying, “Nah. The Russians didn’t tamper with the vote.” Oh, damn it. Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz is accusing Jeh Johnson of lying.

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RUSH: There is a man by the name of Avik Roy. Avik Roy writes at National Review; he writes Forbes. He is a scholar. His expertise is health care. You know, some scholars have their expertise in the Middle East. Some scholars have their expertise in poverty, even though they’re never been. Some have expertise in international studies involving the hijab. I mean, they’re all over the place. This guy’s expertise is health care, and he is, as I say, prominent at National Review.

He just posted the following: “Finished reading the Senate [health care] bill. Put simply: If it passes, it’ll be the greatest policy achievement by a [Republican] Congress in my lifetime.” I will repeat. Avik… It’s A-V-I-K. If you didn’t any better, you’d call him “Av-IK.” It’s “Av-eek” Roy. “Finished reading the Senate [health care] bill. Put simply: If it passes, it’ll be the greatest policy achievement by a GOP Congress in my lifetime.”

Now, without knowing exactly what he wants in a health care bill, I would be hard-pressed to do anything other than share this with you. But, given that he appears in mostly conservative publications, and even in the publications that are not… Like, Forbes. If it leans any way, it leans right, but it’s not an ideologically conservative publication. Whenever he writes in other places he brings his natural conservatism with him. So it just inspires more investigation to look into it, but he’s read the whole thing.

It’s 131 pages, by the way, and I should point out that the stocks of many health care companies of all kinds apparently are skyrocketing right now after the Senate bill got its introduction today. The market overall is up 35 points, with health stocks leading the way. So this is the first review of it that I have seen from a name I recognize. My initial reaction to it’s positive. I do not know if Avik Roy is a Never Trumper or not, so… Not that that would matter. I’m just trying to be as up front and clear as I can, and I’m not trying to prejudge this prematurely.

I’ll prejudge it later after I learn more about it.

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RUSH: Okay. We have four senators pledging to vote “no” on the Senate bill, which kills it. McConnell can only lose two. Well, he can lose three — no, he’s got Pence who could go in and vote if he needs him. Remember, now, this is just the first presentation. This thing hasn’t had its amendments or its actual formal presentation.

Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson have come out and said they oppose ’cause it doesn’t go far enough. Rand Paul said, yeah, it’s got potential, but it doesn’t go far enough. So out of the gate, the Republican plan would appear to be DOA simply because four Republicans say they can’t vote for it. And they need 52.