"Skinny" Obamacare repeal vote fails in the Senate, torpedoing GOP hopes.

Senate leader Mitch McConnell. AFP

Senate Republicans failed to pass the "Skinny" Obamacare repeal in a massive defeat for the party. AFP. The vote failed by one vote as Senators John McCain, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins all voted no along with every Democratic senator. The failure damages not only the Senate GOP, but also members of the House of Representatives and President Donald Trump who all campaigned on repealing and/or replacing Obamacare. The so called "Skinny" repeal would have left large parts of the law intact and was largely seen as a vehicle to get the bill into the conference committee with the House of Representatives. 

My Comment:

A massive failure for the GOP and a major embarrassment for the Senate. This failure will haunt the GOP for years and will have long reaching impact both in the short term and long term. The bill was never going to be easy but the fact that, with a 52 member majority, the Republicans couldn't even get a bill to conference with the House of Representatives marks a massive embarrassment. 

The Republican voter base is furious right now and for good reason. Many of these Senators campaigned, some for as many as seven years, on repealing and replacing Obamacare and they just broke their promise. The people that voted for the GOP expected action on this issue and they got nothing for their vote. 

I personally had a conversation today about this with a coworker who is rarely political. He said something to the effect "We finally got Trump in there and gave the Republicans everything they needed and they still lose". He sounded utterly disgusted and when I tried to tell him about how the Democrats are in worse shape right now all he could say is "That's really saying something". 

All across America this morning there are people that are going to be angered or disappointed that this failed. Some of them are people that were forced to buy insurance they don't need and can't afford. Others are business owners that can't expand now because of Obamacare. And some are principals zealots that just hate socialize medicine or government expansion. In theory all three groups of people are represented by the Republicans, but in practice, all three groups were just let down by them. 

I also want to point out how different things were when the Democrats last had control of the Senate, House and Presidency. Back in 2008 they had all three and guess what they did? They worked together and passed Obamacare in the first place! They have their own issues of different factions wanting different things but back then they were able to put those differences aside and pass a bill. The party has splintered again and I am not so sure it would go smoothly if they were to capture all three houses again in 2020, but still, it's no question that today's GOP is less effective than yesterdays' Democrats. 

There will be consequences for this failure. The one person most responsible for it, John McCain, will likely avoid them. He's never running for election again and is probably not long for this world due to his horrific cancer diagnosis. Indeed, I suspect that's the reason the vote was 49-51 as several other Senators probably would have voted against the bill if they had been forced too. McCain threw himself on that grenade, which would have been a heroic act if it wasn't such a betrayal to the voters that elected him and his party. Whatever goodwill that McCain got back with his cancer diagnosis he burned through with this act and I expect him to be a persona non grata in the GOP from now on. 

Others though aren't so lucky. Before this failure I was pretty sure that the 2018 midterms would go well for the GOP, despite the historical precedence against that possibility. Now I am not so sure. To be clear, I don't think that the people that wanted an Obamacare repeal would ever vote for the Democrats as their healthcare plans are status quo ante at best and single payer at worst, but this has to depress turnout a bit right? I mean I plan to vote in 2018 but, damn it, I am not excited to do so. Perhaps people that don't care as much as I do will just stay home out of disappointment. The only saving grace is that the Democrats are even more split and incompetent right now then the Republicans, so as pathetic as it is, the GOP still has a chance. 

I also expect some of the people that failed here to get primaried, both in the Senate and the House. Incumbents usually win primary battles but not when they fail like this. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell may also lose their leadership positions, assuming they get reelected in the first place. Paul Ryan is especially vulnerable and I wouldn't be surprised if he's gone in 2018.

President Trump is going to get some flack for this as well. Is it deserved? On the one hand it is his job as President to be the leader of the party. He has to herd all the cats and make them agree and it's pretty clear the failed to do so. It's also clear that he promised to have a big beautiful repeal and replace bill and it failed miserably. 

On the other hand, what else more could he have done? He wheeled, dealed, glad handed, threatened, shamed and pleaded and yet the Senate wouldn't budge. And he did it for a party that hasn't supported him and has undermined his presidency at every turn with phony complaints about Russia and constant shaming on tone. At the end of the day you have to ask yourself how much he could have possibly done. 

 I do think that this is personal for Trump. He wants good healthcare and he hates seeing failure like this. If it were possible he'd fire the entire senate for this debacle, but it isn't so he will have to deal with it. I think he also realizes that part of the issue is John McCain's personal animosity for him. You can't tell me that McCain's descion to kill the Obamacare repeal isn't payback for Trump's very critical treatment of McCain. Well McCain got his revenge but it's the rest of the party that's going to suffer. 

I write all this as a person that doesn't really care that much about healthcare. I think it's a toxic subject that probably should have been left alone in the first place by both parties. There isn't a good solution and no matter who touches it, it will turn to crap, period, end of discussion. It's a third rail in politics and the GOP would have been much better off if they had just left it alone, just as the Democrats would have probably not been decimated over the last 8 years had they just tried to do anything else back in 2008-2009. 

Still, it angers me to see a party that I worked hard to help this past election, pardon the language, fuck up so spectacularly. We had a great chance to put away the Democrats for a generation, but we squandered it over health care and we don't even have a law to show for it. At least the Democrats can say "we get results" even if those results are of questionable value. 

I sincerely hope that the GOP just focuses on other things for the rest of this congressional term. They have a golden opportunity here to push through more legislation and the window might be closing sooner, rather than later. They need to pass something, anything, just so people think they are even remotely competent. Something as simple as funding for Trump's border wall or easing restrictions on guns could help. Putting people like Hillary Clinton and Debbie Wasserman Schultz would help too. Because right now I am asking myself what is the point of voting for people that don't keep their promises? And millions of other Republicans, Conservatives and Independents are asking the same thing...