Well it looks like the Senate won’t be holding a vote on the Graham-Cassidy Obamacare ‘repeal’ bill because they just don’t have the votes to pass it:
DAILY BEAST – Senate Republican leaders decided on Tuesday to not hold a vote on a last-ditch attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare before a critical, end-of-the-month deadline, a GOP aide told The Daily Beast.
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) had been pushing for a vote on their legislation that would block-grant federal funds to individual states. But the duo, along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), chose not to hold a vote because the bill lacked enough support. They delivered the news to colleagues at a caucus lunch Tuesday.
“We don’t have the votes,” said Cassidy, upon leaving that lunch. “We made the decision that because we don’t have the votes, we will postpone the vote.”
“The decision was a joint one between Lindsey and Bill and the other two sponsors and also the leader that if the votes are not there, not to have the vote, but not to give up,” said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS). “We’re going to try to do this in some form in this session of Congress.”
The latest GOP effort suffered a major setback on Monday when Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) announced her opposition, joining fellow opponents Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rand Paul (R-KY).
As recently as that evening, however, Graham believed that the Senate should vote on his bill. But McConnell apparently ended up determining that it wasn’t worth the bad optics to hold a vote that would fail, as he did back in July, when McCain dealt the death blow to separate repeal-and-replace legislation.
If they don’t have it now, they aren’t going to have it by the deadline. It’s over.
The American people, once again, hardest hit.
UPDATE: According to Fox News TV, McConnell and Graham say they will get back to trying to repeal Obamacare after tax reform is done.