I strongly recommend people not start celebrating while this matter is on the Senate floor. Just because one proposal was shot down does not mean the repeal isn’t going through. There will be multiple proposals brought up for votes, and there will be multiple opportunities for McConnell to sneak in an amendment that does what the Right Wing really wants here – namely to just repeal the ACA and get rid of it. If they can get that through with 50 votes, it’s over. And if McConnell needs to change the basic voting rules via amendment to make everything a 51 vote situation (meaning 50 plus President Pence), he’ll do it. These guys want a win very badly, and Pence will twist arms to make sure they get one.

And even if this somehow doesn’t go their way, keep your eyes open for Pence to simply pull the funding for the exchanges. That’s been their lurking threat since January. The only reason they haven’t used that option is that they want the Congress to take the blame and the hit. And it plays to their narrative that they’re somehow following the Constitution better than President Obama.

mj— Exactly! It’s not that they ignored the first vote, it’s that they ignored the crushing defeat of Trumpcare by the GOP Senate a little later in the evening.

But mj, neither Tucker nor Sean can come close to competing with Fox Biz’s Lou Dobbs for Trump adoration. It’s seriously embarrassing.

Of course, The Five was all over the vote, as was Bret Baer’s coverage. As it is, the Senate is predictably on its way toward the straight repeal option. All they needed to do was twist enough GOP arms to get the bill onto the floor. Now that it’s there, they’ll spend some time (really, waste some time) debating various options before they settle on just repealing the ACA and figuring out how to replace it later. All they have to do there is get that across the line with 50 votes, using the vague promise that they’ll take care of people using the ACA soon. Once the straight repeal gets back to the House, it will quickly be approved and sent to Pence’s desk.

We need to keep in mind that this is not about helping anyone get health insurance or healthcare. This is and was always about punching Obama in the face, and punishing multiple groups at the same time. By getting rid of the ACA, the Right Wing gets to give a quick victory to Pence, give another victory lap to Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, and simultaneously punish both Obama supporters and the moderate Republicans who were foolish enough to sign up for the ACA. In one step, the Right gets to tell all those people “No You Won’t” and kick some sand in their faces.

While this is not particularly good news for millions of people who were depending on the ACA for coverage, it will at least presage some more promising developments to come. First, the backlash in 2018 for this behavior is likely to be far angrier and deep-seated – Right Wingers will rue the day they celebrated watching people lose their health coverage. Second, Jimmy Carter may well be right – the short term pain of watching the Right Wing dance on the ACA’s grave may well be alleviated by the institution of a much stronger option like Single Payer in another few years, after the GOP is back in the minority following the 2020 census.

This is never easy to stomach, particularly when you have people like Carlson trying to cheerlead the situation – but we knew this was coming the moment that millions of voters chose not to vote last November. We can only hope that those voters realize their mistake and rectify it next November.

Oh, and the reason Hannity ignored the Senate Healthcare vote, was likely due to the fact the proposal to repeal/replace Obamacare died — big time:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/25/politics/senate-health-care-vote/index.html

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_ucker is running neck and neck — literally — with Sean Hannity in competition for Donald Drumpf’s personal affections.

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