We still don't know for sure what Republicans will vote on today, but they're going to vote on something.
The current word is that they'll vote on a series of measure that will fail (full repeal, the Cruz amendment) before finally settling on something they're calling "skinny repeal" or maybe "Obamacare repeal-lite" if you prefer.
What the hell is "skinny repeal?"
The plan after those two votes, according to sources, is for senators to proceed to votes on a series of amendments to create what leadership has called a “skinny” repeal with the goal of eliminating Obamacare's individual mandate penalty, employer mandate penalty and the tax on medical devices.
The Senate would then go to conference with the House of Representatives where they would work out a final bill. Both chambers would then have to vote on the reconciled bill.
This doesn't make any sense even if you're a Republican congressman who hates Obamacare. Repealing the mandates without any other changes will cause premiums to spike and could even cause the individual insurance market to collapse. At the same time, repealing the medical device tax without any other changes will leave elements of the law unfunded.
In each case, this would increase costs for patients and the government and Republicans will own it. It'll be their responsibility.
I can't see why conservatives who passionately believe in repealing every word of Obamacare would vote for this as it contains almost nothing they're asking for. It's true that they've been calling for repeal of the coverage mandate since the beginning, but that's a low hanging fruit compared to what they've set their sights on.
If they do this, there's a very good chance that Trump, not knowing anything about anything, will declare victory and declare Obamacare dead even if that's not exactly the case.
By the way, John McCain, who is returning to Washington to vote, also doesn't know what they're going to vote on.