title:  Bad News For Trump — Mitch McConnell Says No To Repealing Obamacare In 2018
text: Republicans have had seven years to come up with a viable replacement for Obamacare but they failed miserably. After taking a victory lap for gifting the wealthy with a tax break on Wednesday, Donald Trump looked at the cameras and said,  We have essentially repealed Obamacare and we will come up with something that will be much better. Obamacare has been repealed in this bill,  he added. Well, like most things Trump says, that s just not true. But, if the former reality show star could have done that in order to eradicate former President Obama s signature legislation, he would have and without offering an alternative.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told NPR that  This has not been a very bipartisan year. I hope in the new year, we re going to pivot here and become more cooperative. An Obamacare repeal in 2018 is DOA. Well, we obviously were unable to completely repeal and replace with a 52-48 Senate,  the Kentucky Republican said.  We ll have to take a look at what that looks like with a 51-49 Senate. But I think we ll probably move on to other issues. NPR reports:McConnell hopes to focus instead on stabilizing the insurance marketplaces to keep premiums from skyrocketing in the early months of 2018, a promise he made to moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine to get her support for the tax bill.On top of that McConnell broke with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on the approach to paring back spending on programs like Medicaid and food stamps. McConnell told NPR he is  not interested  in using Senate budget rules to allow Republicans to cut entitlements without consultation with Democrats. I think entitlement changes, to be sustained, almost always have to be bipartisan,  McConnell said.  The House may have a different agenda. If our Democratic friends in the Senate want to join us to tackle any kind of entitlement reform. I d be happy to take a look at it. This is coming from Mitch McConnell. He knows Donald Trump is destroying the GOP. It doesn t matter, Sen. McConnell. We still recall him saying that his  number one priority is making sure president Obama s a one-term president. Well, we re hoping that Trump doesn t last a full term. Funny how that works.Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images