The House voted 239-186 on Tuesday to repeal Obamacare—y'know, in case it wasn't clear where the Republicans stood on that issue.
It's the fourth time in four years the GOP-led House has passed a stand-alone bill to fully repeal Obamacare—or the sixth time, if you count budget resolutions, which include full repeal but are nonbinding. Including bills to defund or repeal parts of the law, the House has held more than 50 anti-Obamacare votes since Republicans took control in 2011.
President Obama has signed some of those smaller measures, but Tuesday's full-repeal bill stands as strong a chance as its predecessors: none whatsoever. Just as unsurprising as the House bill's passage was the White House's veto threat, which went on at great length about the law's progress. Obama counterprogrammed Tuesday's vote by meeting with 10 people who have been helped by the Affordable Care Act.
As a political issue, no one is changing their minds about Obamacare at this point. Republicans hate it. Obama loves it. The public is divided but leans against it.
But the point of Tuesday's vote wasn't to legislate: It was to give freshman Republicans a chance to take an easy, politically beneficial vote, which fulfilled a campaign promise for many of them. More experienced members don't have anything to lose by reiterating their support for repeal, even if they already did so in 2011, and/or 2012, and/or 2013.