<p>After a great deal of political wrangling, and likely some serious arm twisting by the President and VP, the Senate has passed the procedural&#8221; vote that moves them into the debate on the repeal and replacement of Obamacare. ;</p>
<p>The Senate will have several options to debate, including a &#8220;skinny bill.&#8221;  ;The idea of the skinny bill is that if the Senators cannot agree on a more comprehensive bill, they could pass one that included only the provision that can be agreed on. Other provisions would then be negotiated in conference with the House.</p>
<p>Senator John McCain arrived at the Senate to vote, despite his recent diagnosis of brain cancer. He received a thunderous standing ovation upon entering the Senate chambers.</p>
<p>Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, who was said to be against moving to debate, apparently had a change of heart. She along with Senators Dean Heller (R-Nev) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) announced minutes before the vote they would support their party to move forward.  ;This put voting at 50-50, Vice President Pence, as leader of the Senate, broke the tie, passing the measure.</p>
<p>Moderate Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted against the motion. ;</p>
<p>Many Republican Senators still oppose the bill as it stands. Senator McCain said as much, calling it a &#8220;shell&#8221; that will get modified as debate continues.</p>
<p><strong>Author&#8217;s note:</strong> It should be a difficult but interesting week. The media has been derisive that the Republicans have not gotten this bill passed yet. But in all cases when a President&#8217;s party controls both sides of Congress, certain of the members will grandstand, negotiate, hold out or refuse. But no one wants to hurt the party that badly. ;</p>
<p> ;</p>
<p><center><strong><br />To Hell with Obamacare!</p>
<p>This book was written by Joe Gilbertson of the Punching Bag Post Staff. This is the solution to the Obamacare fiasco: </p>
<p> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1517719704/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&;camp=1789&;creative=9325&;creativeASIN=1517719704&;linkCode=as2&;tag=punbagpos-20&;linkId=RBIZUOKRHDNIYOP6" rel="nofollow">The Opposite of Obamacare: How a free enterprise philosophy would dramatically reduce health care prices &#8211; Paperback $13.95</a><img style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=punbagpos-20&;l=as2&;o=1&;a=1517719704" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /> </strong></center></p>