First it was Susan Collins. Then Shelley Moore Capito said she would not support the repeal-only bill.

And now we have our third defection:

THE HILL – Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Ala.) says she will not support moving forward with a plan to repeal ObamaCare with a delayed replacement, effectively killing the latest legislative gambit from Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Murkowski, who had balked at the last version of the ObamaCare bill, said she is a “no” on the motion to proceed to a repeal-only plan. She is the third Republican senator to take that position. “No. I said back in January that if we’re going to do a repeal there has to be a replacement. There’s enough chaos and uncertainty already,” she told reporters Tuesday. Other senators indicated they would vote for the repeal-only plan, including Sens. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and David Perdue (R-Ga.). Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) noted the 2015 bill didn’t repeal all of ObamaCare’s insurance regulations, which he said are “the principle driver of premiums skyrocketing,” but said he would support a motion to proceed.







I call bollox. Force them to put their money where their mouths are and vote no on the bill. Make them own it. Let’s see if they really want all the publicity they’ll get from killing repeal.

In a related video, Trump says “we have to get more Republicans elected because we have to get it done”:

Trump on the health care vote: In 2018, "we have to get more Republicans elected because we have to get it done" https://t.co/KRJZifYsXU — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 18, 2017

I hope that doesn’t mean just electing more Republicans. I hope it means fighting for Republicans who will actually repeal Obamacare and defeating the ones that won’t.

UPDATE:

Apparently there are more considering a ‘no’ vote:

Status of Repeal now-Replace later Murkowski: ❌

Collins: ❌

Capito: ❌

Heller: 🤔

Cassidy: 🤔

Portman: 🤔 Three GOPers saying ❌ stops bill. — Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) July 18, 2017