Senate still voting away in Obamacare repeal vote-a-rama

In a process designed to do very little of actual substance, the Senate has been rushing forward with a vote-a-rama, readying the budget resolution that will contain the instructions to Congress to repeal Obamacare. Not replace Obamacare, mind you, but repeal it. If Republicans were very smart in this, they'd have accepted some of these Democratic amendments to give themselves something to build on when—if—they get around to a replacement plan.

In the meantime, it's been a mostly partisan display, in which Republicans reject pretty much any amendment offered up by Democrats in order to protect the healthcare of the people who've gained under Obamacare. Take, for example, one from Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who tried to preserve Medicaid expansion in the 32 states—many governed by Republicans, as he pointed out—who taken it.

Nope, Republicans aren't going to do that. Not only that, we get this from the senior senator from Utah:

SENATE FLOOR — Orrin Hatch now attacking Medicaid expansion, saying it puts more able-bodied people into failing program and wastes money.

— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) January 12, 2017

That’s not attacking Medicaid—that’s attacking the men and women and children who rely on it for their health care. And guess what, Sen. Hatch, many of those people ARE working in jobs that pay too little to allow for health insurance. And Medicaid is the most effective and efficient healthcare program the government runs. But those are facts, something Hatch isn’t going to be interested in.