Quote of the Day:

In the Book of Exodus the Israelites are warned that theirs is a “jealous God,” but there is no god more jealous than single-payer health care. For at the heart of single payer is single authority.

–Bill McGurn in "For the Love of Charlie Gard"

I urge you to read Bill McGurn's eloquent column on the fault lines in Western society exposed by the Charlie Gard case, in which the courts refuse to allow the parents to make decisions about their very sick son.

And I urge you to read McGurn's column a bit selfishly, in light of today's debate in the U.S. Senate over health care in this country, wherein one party is chopping at the bit for the other to fail to repeal and replace ObamaCare so that it can at long last rush in and realize its dream of a single-payer health system for the U.S.

Meanwhile, Senator Mitch McConnell has announced that the GOP will not be able to pass a bill to "repeal and replace" ObamaCare and will abandon the plan in light of four defections. To use reconciliation, an arcane parliamentary process, McConnell could lose only two GOP senators.

The new attempt will be to repeal with a replacement to come later. The Wall Street Journal reports in its news columns:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) acknowledged the defeat. “Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful,” he said in a statement.

In a strategy facing long odds, the majority leader said the Senate would instead vote in coming days on a bill the chamber passed in late 2015 to unravel most of the ACA, a measure former President Barack Obama vetoed in January 2016.

Conservatives in both chambers and Mr. Trump have pressed to repeat the vote on the 2015 bill, which Mr. McConnell said would come as an amendment to the health-care bill passed by the House in May and would allow for a two-year transition.

“Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!” Mr. Trump tweeted shortly before Mr. McConnell’s statement.

Mr. Trump had embraced the idea earlier in July when it was proposed by Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, who noted that 49 sitting GOP senators had voted for a sweeping repeal bill earlier.

But many Republican senators have balked at this strategy, saying they wouldn’t feel comfortable rolling back the ACA without being able to tell their constituents what would supplant it.

Mr. McConnell’s latest tactic applies new pressure to conservatives who have so far blocked a bill they have said falls short of ACA repeal by offering them the chance to vote on exactly that. And while the measure is unlikely to become law, it also offers a way to move on from a bruising fight.

My italics. Fred Barnes delivered a stern column yesterday on what will happen to the GOP–and the country–if the Senate fails to dismantle ObamaCare and substitute something different, even if that something is less than perfect.

The Democrats will not lose sight of their goal: single-payer.