<p>Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has decided to pull the plug on <em>Cassidy-Graham</em>, the GOP&rsquo;s latest attempt to repeal Obamacare. ;</p>
<p>This is exactly what happened in July when House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) dropped healthcare legislation on the eve of an anticipated losing vote. ;</p>
<p>Lawmakers agreed during a luncheon on ;Tuesday that there was no point voting on <em>Cassidy-Graham</em>. The party could afford to lose only two votes, and three Republicans had already promised to vote &ldquo;no.&rdquo; Those three Republicans were John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, and Rand Paul of Kentucky. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;The US Senate cannot get the text of a bill on a Sunday night, then proceed to a vote just days later, with only one hearing &ndash; and especially not on an issue that is intensely personal to all of us,&rdquo; said Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who criticized the &ldquo;lousy process&rdquo; of ;the proposal. McCain had a similar stance. ;</p>
<p>As discussed during the Tuesday luncheon, some senators wanted to vote on the bill just to show the party they did all they could to repeal the <em>Affordable Care Act</em>, but many argued that voting on a doomed bill would harm the party&rsquo;s reputation. ;</p>
<p>&#8220;Why have a vote if you know what the outcome is and it&#8217;s not what you want?&#8221; asks Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL).</p>
<p>There were also worries that President Trump would continue to attack Republicans if they gave up on their seven-year promise to end Obamacare. ;</p>
<p>After the decision was made, Trump said that he was &ldquo;disappointed&rdquo; in GOP Senators who refused to support <em>Cassidy-Graham</em> ;and even threatened to work with Democrats on future healthcare legislation. ;</p>
<p>Senator Bill Cassidy, who authored the healthcare bill with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), admits that Republicans lost a race against the clock: &ldquo;Time was the enemy. Some people didn&rsquo;t like the process so we needed hearings to have them feel better about the process and we didn&rsquo;t have time for those hearings.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>The Senate returns to &ldquo;regular order&rdquo; at the end of the month. ;After that, they will need 60 votes to pass legislation. ;</p>
<p>Graham says Republicans will revisit the repeal effort next year, using the budget resolution for FY 2019 to enable them to evade a Democratic filibuster. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re coming back to this after taxes. We&rsquo;re going to have time to explain our concept,&rdquo; said Graham on Tuesday. &ldquo;To my Republican colleagues, we&rsquo;re going to fulfill our promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Vice President Mike Pence has urged Republicans not to use the deadline as an excuse to forget about health care. ;</p>
<p>The healthcare debate is far from over. As Larry Horist puts it, the mainstream media has a way of calling the final score at the end of each inning. ;</p>
<p>&#8220;Look, we haven&#8217;t given up on changing the American healthcare system,&rdquo; said McConnell on Tuesday. &ldquo;We&#8217;re not going to do it this week, but it still lies ahead of us. We haven&#8217;t given up on that. Where we go from here is tax reform.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s better to &ldquo;focus on taxes right now,&rdquo; agreed Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA). ;</p>
<p>In the meantime, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has promised that Democrats are ready to work with Republicans to improve Obamacare. &ldquo;Once this bill goes down, we&rsquo;re ready to work with you to find a compromise that stabilizes markets, that lowers premiums.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We hope we can move forward and improve healthcare, not engage in another battle to take it away from people, because they will fail once again if they try,&rdquo; said Schumer.  ;  ;</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> Another swing, another miss. Still not over.</p>