Sen. Tom Udall

Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), like many of his colleagues, spent his time on the Senate floor Monday night defending Obamacare in the most essential of terms: how it has saved the lives of many of his constituents.

"Save my daughter." That was the heartbreaking plea that came to me from one of my constituents. Kevin from Albuquerque. Kevin's 33-year-old daughter amber has multiple sclerosis, a tough disease. To treat her M.S., Amber must follow an exact an rigorous drug regimen combined with visits to our neurologist and annual MRIs. The retail cost of her drugs is $60,000 her year. Her doctor visits and MRIs would run into the thousands of dollars. Amber works—in fact she has a good-paying job. But her employer does not provide health insurance. Amber purchases health insurance through the individual open market, without Affordable Care Act subsidies. Amber is able to work because she gets the medical care she needs through insurance. But Kevin fears his daughter will lose the right to health insurance if the Affordable Care Act is repealed. […] I'm the father of a daughter, and I'm angry that this father has to worry about whether his daughter will get the medical care she needs to live a healthy and productive life. Mr. President, let me tell you about Pam and Mike. They are a husband and wife from Placitas. They own a small business. They signed up for an insurance plan under the affordable care act as soon as they could because premiums before the ACA were too expensive and Pam had a preexisting condition. Using their new preventive care, they found out that Mike had an aggressive form of cancer. But, thankfully, doctors caught the cancer at an early stage, Mike was treated at the university of New Mexico cancer center and is now cured. And Pam says there is no question that the ACA saved her husband's life. […] But what would president-elect trump and Republicans do to make sure Pam and Mike and millions of others can keep getting cancer screenings? Nothing. They have no plan. They talk but no plan. […] Mr. President, there are tens of thousands of stories in New Mexico like those of Kevin, Pam, Mike […] . Over 36,000 new Mexicans gained health care since the A.C.A. Was passed and over 21 million Americans have health insurance because of Obamacare. I have heard from new Mexicans who are terrified because there is no plan to replace the ACA's protections, benefits and rights. Republicans have recalled—have called to repeal and replace the ACA. For years. They have had years to figure out how to replace it, and they have not. They have no plan. Repeal and replace is not a sound public policy, only a sound bite.

You can watch his full statement below the fold.

These stories are making a profound difference. It's the reason why the Republican resolve to repeal the law is breaking. Just tonight, five Republicans have offered an amendment to delay the repeal by a few months. And now someone critical to the repeal, Sen. Lamar Alexander who is Chairman of the Health committee that would be tasked with a replacement plan says slow down. "We have to take each part of it and consider what it would take to create a new and better alternative and then begin to create that alternative and once it's available to the American people, then we can finally repeal Obamacare," Alexander said.

Real people will be hurt. Terribly. That's all of a sudden dawning on some Republicans, it would seem. That's just one of the reasons that this commitment by Democrats to fight back—and to rebuff the pleas of Republicans to bail them out—is going to win the day.