On Tuesday, the House of Representatives did something they had already done more than 50 times -- they voted 239 to 186 to completely repeal the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare). This was nothing more than a bit of political theater. They know their bill has no chance of being passed by the Senate, and if it was, it would be vetoed by the president (and they don't have enough votes to override a presidential veto.
So why did they even bother? They did it because they have some new GOP members, and those new Republicans wanted a chance to go on record as voting to repeal Obamacare. It didn't matter that the bill has no chance of success. It only mattered that these new members can point to this vote to keep their teabagger base back home happy.
All the House Democrats voted against the repeal bill, and they were joined by three Republicans, who are evidently tired of playing this same old silly political game (Robert Dold of Illinois, John Katko of New York, and Bruce Poliquin of Maine).
