BULLET DODGED

John McCain's thumb kills Obamacare repeal, for now.

Senator McConnell's speech was less than gracious

You can breathe again, folks. Especially if you rely on Medicaid to help you with it. The Republicans' attempt to gut the Affordable Care Act is finally dead, for real this time,at least until the next time they get a hair up their butts. The Senate voted 51-49 to reject the "Skinny Repeal" of Obamacare, with John McCain joining Maine's Susan Collins, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, and Everwhere's Democratic senators in voting against the bill.

Donald Trump was not pleased:  

Given that Trump's involvement in crafting the legislation consisted of sitting around and saying he was waiting to sign something, anything, that imperative, "Watch!" seems entirely apt, although now the fight to preserve the ACA will mean opposing, loudly, Trump's far more active efforts to undermine the program from inside, using all sorts of administrative fuckery to push the individual markets toward failure. This fight isn't over. We're still going to have to make a lot of noise, people.

Speaking of noise, let's take a quick look at how the crowd waiting outside the Capitol reacted to the news that the repeal had failed. They were ready to protest, but here they are, getting a hell of a nice surprise:

Here's the moment the crowd outside the Capitol learned Republicans didn't have the votes. pic.twitter.com/vawKkdygoY 

— Emma Roller (@emmaroller) July 28, 2017