"Skinny" Bill is GOP Plan 'X'

UPDATE: "Repeal Only" is dead. The senate vote was 45-55. The GOP "nays" included Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine, Dean Heller of Nevada, John McCain of Arizona, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The "skinny" bill is still alive. It could be that Republicans are only able to repeal the medical-device-tax portion of Obamacare, solely in order to have something to conference with the House and thereby make mischief another day.

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The sanctions bill that cleared the House yesterday 419-3 did nothing to address European concerns over its impact on oil and gas projects like Nord Stream 2 and Blue Stream, Yves Smith writes this morning in "Are the Latest Russia Sanctions Really About Forcing US LNG on Europe?"

The Senate passed a procedural vote to open debate on repeal of the Affordable Care Act with a Pence tie-breaker, but later in the evening could only muster 43 votes for its version of Trumpcare. This bodes ill for GOP hopes to repeal Obamacare. But the new plan appears to be to pass a "skinny" bill, something like a repeal Obamacare's tax penalties on people who don't carry health insurance, and then deal with everything else during the House-Senate reconciliation process.

The news this morning of Trump attacking Lisa Murkowski on Twitter for her No vote on opening debate is a message to flip-flopper Shelley Moore Capito to hold the line and vote for repeal when the time comes.