The Ongoing Repeal Saga

Despite their failure to repeal the Democratic health care law, congressional Republicans aren't done holding votes on the matter.

The Senate voted last night on repeal, as an amendment attached to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill. As expected, it failed in a 51-47 vote along party lines. Two weeks earlier, the House had passed a bill to repeal health care reform, 245-189.

It would seem that congressional Republicans would be done with repeal, having rallied around these two votes, but The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports that more repeal votes may be in store in the Senate:

"This issue is still ahead of us and we will be going back at it in a variety of ways," McConnell added.

In addition to attempts to repeal various sections of the law, Republicans will attempt to block funding for its implementation when a stopgap spending measure funding government expires on March 4.

McConnell noted that Republicans blocked more than a million dollars in funding for healthcare reform that Democrats tried to include in a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill at the end of last year.

Regardless of what Congress does, it probably can't repeal the entirety of the new health care law. President Obama would never sign it.

But Republicans have found that, in addition to staying true to what they believe is good policy, these votes are good politics, too. Every time Congress votes on repeal, we see a flurry of emails and tweets from Tea Party groups calling on their members to take action.

So, while the fate of health reform will likely be decided by the Supreme Court, the political drama will be replayed in Congress.

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