Senate to vote on ObamaCare repeal/replace next week

Is this a cynical attempt to just be done with the issue while being able to say, hey, they tried? Or is the sense of urgency designed to get uncommitted senators to the table to come up with a compromise so they can pass something? And if it's the latter, would the something be a significant enough change from ObamaCare to qualify as anything more than, hey, we tried? Sounds like we're going to find out next week:

Senate GOP leaders have set a timeline to vote next week on legislation to repeal large chunks of the Affordable Care Act, even though they don’t yet appear to have secured enough support to pass it.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R., Ky., is intent on keeping pressure on Senate Republicans to move quickly on the bill rolling back and replacing much of the 2010 health law, lawmakers and GOP aides said. The push for a quick vote before the weeklong July 4 recess could backfire, however, as some conservative and centrist Republicans have expressed concern about the emerging shape of the legislation. “I expect us to vote on it next week,” Sen. Richard Burr, R., N.C., said Monday evening of the health bill. “I believe the majority leader when he says he’s going to take it up.”

I get the sense that a lot of senators aren't all that motivated to vote on this, and that being the case it probably makes sense to go ahead and schedule a vote because they would dither until the cows come home if they could. But just because there's some urgency doesn't guarantee they work anything out. Moderates (Collins, Murkowski, Portman, etc.) are going to be nervous about rolling back the Medicaid expansion and about the largely fake issue of people with pre-existing conditions. Conservatives (Cruz, Lee, etc.) are going to object that the Medicaid expansion rollback is too slow, and that overall the new bill still keeps government far too involved in health care. On the merits, I agree with the conservatives, but I don't want ObamaCare kept in place because they were only willing to vote for a "clean repeal" or because the replacement isn't perfect enough for them.

---

There is also some talk that some GOP senators want to keep some of the ObamaCare taxes. These taxes have been a disaster for the economy overall and for the people directly affected by them. They're also tied to automatic spending measures that will exploded in a very few years. They need to go. All of them. But when you only have 52 Republicans in the Senate and a few of them are nervous by nature, it's going to be difficult to hold together a very conservative bill and pass it. There are going to be some changes we don't like. And there's no chance at all that the Senate simply passes the American Health Care Act that passed the House. That was never going to happen. The Senate will pass its own bill and leaders of the two chambers will have to go to conference committee to iron out the differences. Then we'll get a whole new round of drama over whether they can work out a deal, and whether the conference committee bill is able to pass one or both chambers. No matter what happens next week, this will be far from over. But ObamaCare needs to be over. The exchanges are collapsing, insurers are pulling out, premiums are soaring and care options are narrowing. You can't blame President Trump for any of this, either. He's been ready to sign the repeal since he took office. Congress needs to get this done, whether some of its members are nervous about it or not.