OnPolitics Today: For GOP health care efforts, failure is a pre-existing condition

with Josh Hafner

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell walks to his

The third time is not a charm: The Republican dream of repealing Obamacare collapsed again on Tuesday, following two prior failures this year after seven years of vowing to overturn President Obama's signature health care law.

Republican lawmakers, once sentenced to push repeal and replace like a boulder uphill for all eternity, will be set free this week by a procedural deadline that kills their overhaul efforts - for now - and gives them a lot to explain to voters back home

Also on Tuesday: Trump eyes the devastating damage in Puerto Rico.

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What the health happens now?

Most Americans' health care coverage won't be affected by the lack of action. The problems lawmakers hoped to address affect the 7% of the population who buys health insurance on the individual market. Most get it through an employer or a government program like Medicare or Medicaid. After Tuesday's collapse, Sen. Lamar Alexander, who chairs the Senate health committee, planned to reboot bipartisan talks to find short-term fixes for Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act.

President Trump now plans to pivot from health care to tax cuts, and he'll enlist his some friends to do so: Democrats.

Americans are suffering in Puerto Rico, and Trump's on the defense

President Trump will visit Americans in the nation's storm-wrecked territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands next week after the government's much-criticized preparations for Hurricane Maria. Unlike hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the response for which Trump received general praise, Maria offered something more complicated: Damage to islands isolated a thousand miles off the course of Florida. Puerto Rico is mostly Spanish-speaking on top of that, and is 95% without power.

Trump broke from a dozen-plus tweets about the NFL to address Puerto Rico for the first time on Monday night, five days after the hurricane devastated the island: "Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble."

Elsewhere in politics:

•	Alabama candidate Roy Moore pulls gun out at campaign rally
•	Now Trump's team has to deal with private email questions
•	Resolution filed on proper national anthem etiquette
•	Sen. Bob Corker will not seek re-election in Tennessee