Republican Party

As reported earlier, after yesterday's surprising Senate GOP "victory", when it found the bare minimum number of votes to open debate on Republican Healthcare legislation, Republicans suffered an immediate defeat just hours later when the Senate voted soundly against (with 9 Republicans joining Democrats) a "Repeal and Replace" of Obamacare. Shortly, the Senate is expected to vote on a clean Repeal bill (it was originally scheduled for noon but was pushed back to 3:30pm) which, however, is also not expected to have the 51 votes necessary to be approved.

After failing at least once in the House, depending on your definition of failure, the GOP's hopes of repealing and/or replacing Obamacare looks to also now be official dead in the Senate as well.  All of which officially proves that John Boehnor was spot on when he said back in February that Republican chatter of a full repeal and replace of Obamacare was nothing more than a bunch of "happy talk."

With the CBO warning that the Treasury is on track to run out of cash in less than four months, Republicans are facing a difficult internecine struggle to raise the debt limits as both conservatives and moderates demand riders that stipulate how the money can be spent.

Update: Nancy Pelosi does have one supporter who believes she should stay...

I certainly hope the Democrats do not force Nancy P out. That would be very bad for the Republican Party - and please let Cryin' Chuck stay!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017

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In what is being hailed as a "major speech," which means just about nothing to ordinary Americans living outside the D.C. bubble, House Speaker Paul Ryan is expected to call for permanent tax reform in 2017 in remarks to be delivered to the National Association of Manufacturers.  According to the Washington Examiner, Ryan will report that the GOP intends to introduce and pass a joint tax bill in the fall of this year.

"We are going to get this done in 2017. We need to get this done in 2017.  We cannot let this once-in-a-generation moment slip."