Story highlights Republicans again failed to get 50 senators to back their health care bill

Lawmakers are moving on to another tough lift -- tax reform

Washington (CNN) Republicans on Capitol Hill rallied around a familiar political slogan for the better part of the last seven years: "Repeal Obamacare."

They're finally leaving that chant behind -- at least for now.

GOP senators were forced to acknowledge on Tuesday that their eleventh hour push to repeal the Affordable Care Act had failed. For the second time in two months, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly conceded that he could not find 50 senators who would support partisan legislation to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, made all the more painful by the reality that Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

But unlike after the last failed attempt to repeal Obamacare in July, senators are in agreement that it is time for Republicans to move on to other things.

"Health care, as far as I am concerned, is over," said GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the finance committee. "Tax reform is where we have to do the job."

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