Senate

The ongoing saga to repeal Obamacare continues, and with just hours left until a critical vote, the sheer chaos has never been greater.

For all the talk of obstruction and interference by the Trump camp, it's neither Donald Trump Jr. nor Paul Manafort who are challenging their scheduled testimony in the Senate next Wednesday, but rather the man who according to many started the whole "Trump Russia collusion" narrative, who is doing everything in his power to avoid testifying next week.

FUSION GPS head Glenn Simpson won't testify before Senate Judiciary next week, his rep attacks "partisan" hearing and vows to plead Fifth

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."

Following the news that 'repeal' would not garner the votes required to pass, President Trump said he was disappointed in the Senate's failure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and argued that Republicans should now let the law fail on its own.

Trump on the health care vote: In 2018, "we have to get more Republicans elected because we have to get it done" https://t.co/KRJZifYsXU

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 18, 2017

Back in April when Senate Republicans implemented the "nuclear option" to confirm Neil Gorsuch with just 51 votes, instead of the typical 60, moderate Republicans like John McCain only reluctantly agreed to using the legislative gimmick saying it was a "slippery slope" on the path to nuking the entire legislative filibuster.  We wrote about the issue in a post entitled "Gorsuch "Nuclear Option" Could "Fundamentally Transform" The Senate Forever."