In another failed attempt by the GOP to prove that history does not repeat itself, their most recent effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, which was instituted by former president Barack Obama. The Graham-Cassidy bill, their most recent effort, proved a failure as Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced at a lunch with fellow republican senators that he would not hold a vote on the bill. The bill would have given states more control over the health care coverage they offer and allowed them to waive certain aspects, as well as gradually cutting funding from Medicaid. McConnell made clear what republicans had suspected: they wouldn’t have the votes required to pass the legislation.

“We haven’t given up on changing the American health care system,” McConnell said.  “We are not going to be able to do that this week. But it still lies ahead of us, and we haven’t given up on that.”

Though hopes that the bill would pass were initially high, it became clear that it wouldn’t on Monday, October 2, when leading republican senators Rand Paul and John McCain announced that they would vote against the bill. With every democrat opposed to the repeal and the republican senators joining them, as well as some republicans that followed after this announcement, there was no chance of the measure being passed.

President Donald Trump, a republican, has been very encouraging of efforts towards the repeal of Obamacare and health care reform, saying that he was very disappointed in republicans who voted against the measure. In fact, he warned the republican senators that if they failed to act, he would work with democrats on the legislation. Democratic congressman Richard Neal was asked if the President was making a threat.

“He made that clear that if he didn’t get what he wanted, he was going to work with democrats on a plan,” Neal said.

However, Senator Lindsay Graham disagrees.

“I think the President is not going to do anything that doesn’t repeal and replace Obamacare in a substantial way — don’t sell him short,” Graham said in an interview with CNN.

One final thing remains unclear – whether this failed effort means that republican senators will move on from “repeal and replace” for the time being, or whether they will try again in the near future. President Trump stated that he strongly believes that the latter will happen.

“At some point there will be a repeal and replace but we’ll see whether or not that point is now or whether it will be shortly thereafter,” President Trump said.

Several republicans have advocated for tying the repeal of Obamacare to the 2018 budget. While it has barely garnered support in the senate as a whole, Graham is in full support of this measure, but it has caused other republican senators concern.