LOL yes, poor Marsha. Too bad (for her) things didn't turn out the way she anticipated.

– DJ 😀

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said that Republicans should aim to "repair" Obamacare and return power back to the states so that Americans have a better chance at accessing insurance coverage at an affordable price.

Johnson told reporters Tuesday that HELP Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) often told colleagues to look at Obamacare like a broken bridge. The advice is not to buy it, but instead repair it.

"We'll seek to repair it so the public can use it. Nobody wants to pull out the rug from anybody else," Johnson told reporters. "We have to be designing the new bridges and things that actually work so I think that is a pretty good analogy."

The rhetoric is a shift from Republicans just a month ago who were gunning to repeal the Affordable Care Act as soon as possible without much forethought of what came next. Many rank-and-file Republicans are growing increasingly uneasy now that simply repealing Obamacare without a clear replacement could backfire, leave individuals in their states without insurance and cause a death spiral in the insurance market.

"Right now we have a bridge that is crumbling, close to collapse. We need to shore it up. It's very complex," Johnson said. "It's gonna take some time. We are probably going to need help from Democratic colleagues so let's start seeking that help right off the bat. Let's start voting on some of these elements."

So far, few conversations in the Senate have been actually occurring between Republicans and Democrats on a replacement. But, it is true that while Republican senators can repeal many parts of Obamacare through reconciliation, which only requires a majority vote in the Senate, they cannot replace it that way. That means that Democrats will have to sign on and Johnson said he has serious concerns they will help with the heavy lifting if Republicans charge blindly ahead with repeal.

"We need to understand what the whole package is," Johnson said. "How do we get votes for replace? I take Sen. Schumer at his word that if we vote repeal , they're not going to help us at all. That means we are going to have a hard time getting replacement." – TalkingPointsMemo

WASHINGTON ― As moderate Senate Republicans push to slow down an Obamacare repeal, they are are finding common ground with one of their most unlikely allies in Congress: House conservatives.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus emerged from their weekly meeting in the basement of Tortilla Coast on Monday night and urged House GOP leadership to delay a possible vote on the repeal of Obamacare that was expected to take place Friday.

“We just need to slow down the process so that we can understand a little bit more of the specifics, the timetable, replacement votes, reconciliation instructions, etc.,” Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C) told reporters.

Informed that GOP leadership was considering a vote as early as this Friday, Meadows said that, without details on what a replacement would look like, the Freedom Caucus would encourage a delay.

“It’s like saying, ‘I’m going to get in that taxi and make good time, but I don’t know where I’m going,” Meadows said. “I want to know where I’m going.” […] – HuffPost

…..while they dithered away playing "let's PRETEND we're going to repeal Obamacare" by taking meaningless vote, after meaningless vote after meaningless vote.

Of course, now that the vote will actually count, there seems to be an "Oh sh*t" moment of clarity sinking in among more Repubs that they are "d*mned if we do and d*mned if we don't" ….especially if they don't have a credible replacement plan….which they DON'T.

Watching this whole thing play out should be quite interesting to say the least.

Oh and DJ…..Kudos on including the Marsha Blackburn twitter poll fiasco in your post. I love it!

When I first read about it yesterday I was nearly in tears with laughter…Lol. They reported that soon after the results became clear, that poll was deleted rather quickly.

Poor Marsha…smh. She's never been the brightest bulb in the pack.