A few days ago U.S. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said there would be a vote to repeal the healthcare law in the U.S. Senate. Ironically, he was correct. The U.S. Senate voted yesterday to repeal the healthcare law.

The “statement of purpose” for the vote was:

To repeal the job-killing health care law and health care-related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Nice wording…

The “procedural” vote failed in the U.S. Senate 47-51. It needed 60 votes to proceed. Two senators did not vote; Lieberman the Independent of Connecticut and Warner a Democrat of West Virginia.

I received several e-mails asking me to contact my Senators, Jon Tester and Max Baucus, and urge them to vote to repeal Obamacare. I did not make the calls, so their staffers can thank me later…

Tester and Baucus voted against repealing Obamacare. It is not known if Baucus has read the law, yet.

So now we have another major issue for the 2012 election season!

All the Democrats voted against the repeal; all the Republicans voted for it. Democrat party faithful are probably wondering why they could not stick together like this when they had a supermajority in the Senate.

Almost as quickly as the gavel came down ending the vote, the Montana Republican Party fired off an e-mail with a statement from the Chairman with the “B” word (betrayed):

Today Senator Jon Tester again voted against the will of the people. With not one single public poll of Montanans ever showing majority support for Obamacare here, Tester nevertheless voted against repealing it. Jon Tester has betrayed Montana, and that bill will come due in 2012.

An e-mail from the office of Congressman Denny Rehberg echoed those same thoughts:

“Today’s vote in the Senate is another endorsement of the status quo, which means rising health care costs and insurance premiums resulting in out of control deficits and government interference in every aspect of our lives. Unfortunately, as long as Obamacare is the law of the land, real health care reform to decrease costs and increase access will have to wait. The American people sent a message last year that we expect our leaders to listen to the will of the people. It’s time for the Senate to put people above partisanship.”

I could not find anything on the Baucus and Tester Senate websites about their votes.

So the Republicans in Washington have done their jobs; they voted to repeal Obamacare in the House and forced a vote in the Senate. Some polls show that the majority of Americans want the healthcare law repealed. Rasmussen reports that “58% Favor Repeal of Health Care Law, But Confidence in Repeal Is Down.” Gallup polling reports that “In U.S., 46% Favor, 40% Oppose Repealing Healthcare Law.”

It will be up to the Republicans to keep this issue on the front burner for 2012, but realistically the final answer on Obamacare will be decided by the Supreme Court.

In 2012, I think we’ll see several political losses along the way like we saw in November 2010. Montana Senator Jon Tester is up for reelection, so he’ll have to defend this vote over and over to the Montana voters. With Tester already trailing in the polls and the race considered a “toss-up” this vote did not help his chances for reelection.

That’s bad news for an incumbent who officially does not have a challenger, yet.