Despite the fact that it deserved to fail, the failure of the Republicans' American Health Care Act (AHCA) is a bad thing.
The bill was horrible - Obamacare 0.5, a giant "screw you" to anyone not rich, and a policy nightmare that would have denied millions of Americans health care. It deserved to fail. But, its failure is going to resonate throughout the political system in complicated ways.
The failure to even bring it to a vote has badly damaged Paul Ryan. He's always been overhyped and under-talented, but this failure reveals his incompetence as Speaker. Ryan tried to take a legislative short-cut and it blew up in his face. The hard work of crafting complex legislation take time, patience and the ability to bargain. It's not an unpleasant process. Ryan tried to jam a major reform through Congress without the complicated process. On the quotes that's floating around is that 56% of people disliked the bill; in an environment this partisan, that's an accomplishment.
Ryan may hold onto his speakership. But, his influence has been greatly diminished; his inability to get enough votes for a major campaign promise will undermine him. We may yet see him follow Boehner — wash his hands of the problems and walk away. An ungovernable party will become even more fractious. A majority unable to govern is a recipe for disaster.
In this article at the conservative site Town Hall, Steve Chapman makes a number of interesting points but his primary argument is that health care is intractable and probably unfixable: