Mitch’s Miscalculation: Where One Of Senate’s Most Skilled Strategists Went Wrong

The New York Times: McConnell’s Reputation As A Master Tactician Takes A Hit
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, has long enjoyed a reputation as a master tactician. But when it comes to repealing the Affordable Care Act, he seems to have miscalculated in the first round of play. He assumed that his conservative and moderate colleagues would come together to make good on their seven-year promise to repeal the health care law, and quickly. (Steinhauer, 6/27)

Politico: Inside The GOP’s Surprise Health Care Flop
Senate Republicans had no inkling of what they were walking into on Tuesday afternoon as they filed into the Mike Mansfield room on the Capitol’s second floor. Mitch McConnell’s 51 colleagues, from his most junior members to his closest lieutenants, fully expected the Senate to vote this week on the Senate GOP’s wounded Obamacare repeal bill. They knew the whip count was far worse than advertised but were ready for McConnell to either admit defeat or start a furious round of deal-making to try to win their support. They took McConnell at his word that a vote would occur, regardless of the result. (Everett, Haberkorn and Dawsey, 6/27)

The Washington Post: ‘Repeal And Replace’ Was Once A Unifier For The GOP. Now It’s An Albatross.
For Republicans, Obamacare was always the great unifier. In a fractious party, everyone agreed that the Affordable Care Act was the wrong solution to what ailed the nation’s health-care system, with too much government and too little freedom for consumers. Replacing Obamacare has become the party’s albatross, a sprawling objective still in search of a solution. The effort to make good on a seven-year promise has cost the Trump administration precious months of its first year in office, with tax restructuring backed up somewhere in the legislative pipeline, infrastructure idling somewhere no one can see it and budget deadlines looming. (Balz, 6/27)

The Hill: Behind Closed Doors, Tensions In The GOP 
The White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are using a soft sell on Republicans as they try to save legislation repealing and replacing ObamaCare. McConnell told colleagues at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday that they would not vote on the healthcare bill this week, as GOP leaders had been promising for weeks. (Bolton, 6/27)

Kaiser Health News: Analysis: Mitch McConnell Plans To Hide Trumpcare’s Pain Until After Midterms
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is well aware of the political peril of taking health benefits away from millions of voters. He also knows the danger of reneging on the pledge that helped make him the majority leader: to repeal Obamacare. Caught between those competing realities, McConnell’s bill offers a solution: go ahead and repeal Obamacare, but hide the pain for as long as possible. Some of the messaging on the bill seems nonsensical (see: the contention that $772 billion squeezed out of Medicaid isn’t a cut). But McConnell’s timetable makes perfect sense — if you are looking at the electoral calendar. (McAuliff, 6/27)

Kaiser Health News: Postcard From Capitol Hill: Doubts, Dissent Over Health Care Bill Rescue July 4 Holiday
When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell broke the news Tuesday afternoon, all the nervous buildup around the Senate health care bill vanished faster than a sticky, summer day in Washington, D.C., after a thunderstorm. Could McConnell really push the bill through the Senate before senators left town for the holiday? How many senators were balking now? Those and other questions disappeared — for now — when McConnell announced the Better Care Reconciliation Act would get no floor vote until after July 4. (Bluth, 6/27)