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The president is demanding that Senate Republicans keep working until they produce an Obamacare repeal and/or replacement plan that can get 50 votes. But he doesn’t understand there are more

problems than time alone can solve. Photo: Bloomberg/Getty Images Ordered by President Trump to find some bill to repeal and replace — or at least repeal — Obamacare, a group of 20-some-odd

Republican senators met last night for nearly three hours, and despite optimistic talk no magic new formula emerged. And even if they do somehow come up with a bill that can attract 50

votes, it will almost certainly include features that have made every GOP plan this year increasingly unpopular. The roster of attendees was not clear, except that several moderates and

conservatives who have been on and off the reservation for various reasons were there. They all learned in the course of the evening that another absent colleague, John McCain, has been

diagnosed with brain cancer, making his return to Washington for a planned vote next week on health-care legislation more uncertain than ever. > “Hard to say [if we’re closer]. I’m fine 

voting next week,” > said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). McCain’s absence “does complicate > things. And I just don’t know if he’s going to be back.” >  > Privately, senators doubted 

they could get the 50 votes together for > a health care overhaul despite the productive meeting. There was a > feeling that while a session that occasionally turned into venting > 

was therapeutic, the challenges facing the fractious 52-member > majority may be too great to bridge. >  > “You understand the math. It just makes things kind of more > 

difficult,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). Trump’s apparent conviction that Republican senators just haven’t spent enough time working toward a deal on health care is colliding with the

underlying reality that enough of them are fundamentally divided on the basics to make the path to 50 votes extremely difficult. In particular, conservatives are insisting on long-term

Medicaid cuts and changes in Obamacare regulations. So far Mitch McConnell’s strategy, of giving conservatives what they want from a policy point of view while giving more money to the

states to mitigate the consequences, has not worked. It is not clear how or why more of the same, with the added ingredient of high-profile presidential pressure, will produce a

breakthrough. At this point, McConnell’s game plan seems to be to hold a vote on a motion to proceed to consideration of some sort of bill next week. If a new repeal-and-replace plan with

some promise pops up, that will be the bill McConnell offers once a motion to proceed has passed. Otherwise he will go with the 2015 bill that simply repeals Obamacare with a two-year delay

in the effective date. That option signals failure. CBO’s reminder yesterday that the 2015 bill would cost 32 million Americans their heath coverage while doubling premiums in the individual

market makes passage of that legislation less likely than ever. There is no reason to believe the various GOP senators who are on the record opposing a straight repeal will suddenly change

their minds. Trump added to the agony of his party’s senators by publicly demanding that they cancel their entire August recess (two weeks have already been canceled) until such time as they

pass health-care legislation. The president, of course, famously doesn’t quite “get” the policy details that are dividing his party. So he’s basically asking them to walk the plank. Some

politically vulnerable senators may take a look at his approval ratings and the terrible public assessments for every known GOP health-care replacement plan and decide to take a walk

instead. At this point, it still just takes one more recalcitrant Republican to sink the whole exercise, and if McCain doesn’t return, it will take converting Paul or Collins to turn it all

around. Optimistic talk aside, this remains the longest of long shots.