Update Skinny repeal fails!! (The morning after)

From Bloomberg, The GOP has the votes for Skinny Repeal.  The bill will go to conference – but it is very possible out of that conference that skinny repeal will simply to to the house.

Graham and McCain made clear they did not want Skinny Repeal to pass, and were holdouts.  Ryan has to this point REFUSED to promise the House will not simply pass the Senate version.

It is unclear if there will be changes to the Senate Bill in conference.  It may be that in the end Graham and McCain have simply caved.

If true the GOP will end the mandate to buy healthcare.  Obamacare does not work without it – and premiums will explode as a result.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-27/gop-promise-to-torch-obamacare-veers-toward-bare-
bones-repeal?utm_content=politics&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm
_medium=social&cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-politics

Update at 1:33: McCain, Murkowski and Collins vote no!!! The Bill has failed.

I have no doubt they will be back.

Some thoughs and links this morning:

1. Maggie Hassan beat Kelly Ayotte by 1,017 votes, or .2%. EVERY SEAT MATTERS.

2. We still struggle, I think, with focusing on the things that matter. Trump does so much crazy stuff, that it can be hard to see through all of it and find the battle at hand.

3. We don’t know. We really don’t. Confident predictions are lies. The Senate got close here, and using a process that no one could have foreseen ahead of time. We have consistently under estimated the danger the Republicans present.

4. The two most interesting votes last night were Flake and Heller’s. Clinton won Nevada, and lost AZ narrowly. Both Flake and Heller voted for this anyway, which suggests to them the danger of pissing off the GOP right, and the donor money they will get for voting the way they did outweighed the danger from losing in 2018.

The Times account is here. Pence went to the floor because he thought they had the votes and he was needed to break a tie. Hard to believe they didn’t know they didn’t have the votes.

The Post account is here. I am sorry if people can’t get behind the paywall.

Five true heroes: