The Note: Health care not dead yet

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June 28, 2017

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Health care not dead yet

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

1. When in doubt, delay. There will be no vote on the Senate Republican health care bill this week, and more GOP senators came out against the bill after the announcement. 2. But don't count the bill as dead. After Congress returns from the July 4th recess, expect wheeling, dealing and, possibly, another CBO score before Senate GOP leadership tries again. 3. The Russia beat goes on. Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort filed as a foreign agent because his firm earned more than $17 million working for a Ukrainian political party, the Washington Post reports. 4. The hotel that announced "Trump: Coming 2016" is ushering in 2020. President Trump will headline his first campaign fundraiser tonight at the Trump International Hotel, just down the street from the White House.

THE TAKE with ABC News' Rick Klein

If this was a make-or-break moment, what the break part looks like can lead to all sorts of directions. It's easy enough to imagine enough GOP tweaks and goodies to get to 50 Senate votes in a few weeks, with the conservative holdouts getting just enough of what they want to get health care passed. It's also easy to foresee a restless, angry summer of town halls that makes it unlikely that anyone budges, leaving a tense status quo where presidential tweets stir the pot but not any action. But is it ridiculous to suggest there might be a moment for actual governing? Probably, but it doesn't have to be that way. With Democrats' still backing Obamacare, and Republicans in the still-unfamiliar position of governing, every political leader has a stake in the health care laws, just as all their constituents did already. There are changes – even major ones – that could pass with supermajorities if slogans are just filtered out of the congressional water. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is talking about it as a backup option, though he's making his declaration - "we'll have to sit down with [Chuck] Schumer" - sound more like a threat than a roadmap. But if President Trump meant it when he said it would be "OK" if health care overhaul doesn't happen – if he's interested in governing instead of sloganeering – the break could lead to a better set of laws and a real opportunity to lead.

DON'T EXPECT OPPOSITION TO BACK DOWN

Leader McConnell may have decided to punt a vote on health care for now, but that doesn't mean the protests and pressure will die down. Democrats and patient advocacy groups opposing the bill were cautious not to pat themselves on the back Tuesday; instead they again pointed people to the phones. Today, at noon, doctors, nurses, students and seniors at risk of losing care under the bill plan to storm one Senate office building. Later in the day, women's groups will be on the front lawn, linking arms around the Capitol building itself. Tuesday until late in the day, the American Heart Association had patients walking the halls. It is possible at home, out of the limelight of D.C., lawmakers could strike some deals. Conservatives would like to get rid of requirements on insurers, like the rule that they must allow kids on parents' plans until age 26. Moderates, maybe, could be won over with more direct spending in Medicaid expansion states or the provision to defund Planned Parenthood taken out. But finding the motivation to communicate with their colleagues will be hard with folks undoubtedly confronting them about the bill at every July 4th parade and BBQ, ABC News' MaryAlice Parks notes.

WHAT TO WATCH TODAY

The Senate Intelligence Committee holds an open hearing on Russian intervention in the European elections.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"If we don't get it done, it's just going to be something that we're not going to like and that's OK and I understand that very well," President Trump on Senate health care bill after the vote was delayed.