It’s ‘Health Care or Bust’ for Republicans

First Read: “Republicans are preparing for a marathon of votes on their Obamacare repeal starting next week. There’s no written bill yet, and there isn’t even an agreement that has leadership comfortable they have 50 votes to pass a bill. But the new expectation on Capitol Hill is there will be an outline of a proposal as soon as Wednesday. Why? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell knows that if the Senate doesn’t deal with health care, there’s little chance of any other GOP priority ever seeing the light of day.”

“It’s an incredibly tough issue that’s been a bad political storyline for both Congress and the White House, and he’s essentially betting that when faced with voting yes or no on Obamacare repeal, he’ll have the votes he needs. And if those votes aren’t there — well — they’ll at least have moved on to other things. Keep in mind there’s pressure to lift the debt ceiling in July and then there will be a government funding crisis in September. (And they’re gone in August.)”