It seems that in some ways at least, Congress doesn t quite know what to do with itself now that they ve got control of absolutely everything at the federal level. Senate Democrats seem to know that and have been using it to force Republicans to vote for things they might not otherwise vote for out of fear of pissing off their constituents.Last night, and into this morning, in fact, the Democrats of the Senate forced the GOP s hand on healthcare. No, they didn t force Republicans to admit they want to destroy Obamacare   we already know that. They engaged in a  vote-a-rama  of sorts to force Republicans to vote to gut things that their constituents will hate. They forced Republicans to admit that they re perfectly fine gutting Medicare, Medicaid, mental healthcare, women s healthcare, and more.How did they do it? They engaged in a  vote-a-rama,  in which they presented a series of amendments to a budget resolution intended to allow Congress to repeal Obamacare with simple majorities in both houses.Every one of those amendments failed. Quelle surprise, though.Several Democrats in the Senate made a point of voicing their objections as they cast their  no  votes on the budget resolution measure. For instance, Sen. Claire McCaskill (R-Missouri) said,  Because there is no replace, I vote no. The vote-a-rama lasted nearly seven hours, and included not only Democratic amendments to protect Medicare and Medicaid, but also, late Wednesday evening, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said: Put this irresponsible and rushed repeal plan aside. Work with us Democrats on a way to improve health care in America, not put chaos in place of affordable care. Mitch McConnell, however, had his own statement to issue when the vote was complete: The Senate just took an important step toward repealing and replacing Obamacare by passing the resolution that provides the legislative tools necessary to actually repeal this failed law while we move ahead with smarter health care policies. Republicans have never actually been able to point to anything that proves the ACA (which, yes, is Obamacare) is a failed policy. Does it have problems? Yes. Name one thing that doesn t, though, especially a program this complex that s only in its fledgling years.But repealing Obamacare means so much more than just ending a so-called  failed  law. It means harming millions of people in pursuit of a political goal   one that their constituents don t believe will hurt them because they literally think that Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act are two different things.Republicans don t care about collateral damage, though. They got their repeal measure through over and above the efforts of Democrats to stop it. But stopping it wasn t the Democrats  only objective. They seemed to know that, if they couldn t stop this, they could either embarrass Republicans with their votes, or force them to admit to things they don t want to admit to.Photo of Chuck Schumer by Win McNamee/Getty Images. Photo of Mitch McConnell Zach Gibson/Getty Images