John McCain and Chuck Schumer

Arizona Sen. John McCain made his position on whatever it is the Senate is doing today on Affordable Care Act repeal and Trumpcare very clear in an exchange with Sen. Chuck Schumer Thursday morning: just get done with this so we can get to what matters—McCain’s defense authorization bill.

Schumer had just declared his intention, now that Republicans apparently are actually intent on passing their skinny repeal bill, to have "numerous" amendments, and "many more" amendments after the bill hits the floor. He also made clear he wasn’t going to give consent to bring up McCain's defense authorization bill in the middle of this massive healthcare fiasco.

That apparently enraged McCain (which isn't hard to do) because he wants to just set aside this whole taking health insurance away from millions of people thing so that they can get to what matters. "I believe," he told Schumer, "that our obligation to the men and women in the military is transcendent." He said that. Schumer responded that "the reason that we must ask consent to go to the bill is we're in reconciliation," reminding McCain, who continued to bitch about partisanship, that this is the "very process that has prevented us from debating, from having hearings, from having some kind of bipartisan input." But McCain doesn't care about your process, never mind his lecture about regular order just a few days ago.

Schumer: The reason we can't do that is our dear friend, the majority leader, is insisting on the reconciliation process. And you can't say—we can't because we feel defense is important and we feel the health care of tens of millions of Americans is equally important. And we can't say you can turn on and turn off the reconciliation process when you want to and when you don't. What's good for the goose, good for the gander. […] Let's get rid of reconciliation and we can do what the leader and the senator from Arizona want and what I think the American people want, a fair process. […] McCain: All I can say to the senator from New York, this is not the same. Defending the nation is our first priority. That's what our declaration of Independence says. That's what our—all of our basis for our roles here. And there are men and women who are in harm's way today whose lives are in danger, who need this legislation to be better equipped and better able to defend themselves and this nation.

So there you go, Arizona. Your senator really doesn't think whether or not you have health care matters as much as his pet project, the defense industry.