» State delegation: Wisconsin lawmakers spared difficult health care vote.

WASHINGTON House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision to pull his party’s Obamacare replacement bill spared his fellow Republicans from voting on an unpopular piece of legislation that lacked the votes to pass the House or Senate.

“We came really close today, but we came up short,” said Ryan. “This is a disappointing day for us … we’ll need time to reflect on how we got to this moment and what we could have done … better.”

Ryan’s fellow Republicans from Wisconsin were mostly prepared to support his controversial health care bill. Jim Sensenbrenner and Glenn Grothman planned to vote yes. Sean Duffy was publicly supportive, though he conditioned his vote on the final shape of the legislation. Mike Gallagher, a freshman in the House, was more muted on the issue, and told a radio interviewer earlier this week he was undecided.

Gallagher issued a statement Friday saying, “I had concerns with the bill, including the fact that it did not address the true, underlying drivers of cost in our health care system” and that “doing the job right is more important than getting it done fast.”

For all five of the state’s GOP lawmakers, the bill would have resulted in large cuts in the subsidies that many enrollees in their districts get to buy a health plan under Obamacare, but Ryan and others argued that their constituents would have been better off in other ways.

Grothman said Friday before the bill failed that he still expected it to pass because, “I think Obamacare is a train wreck and it’s been getting worse. I think if Obamacare were to survive, I think there would be (public) retribution on the Republicans … who stood by and did nothing.”

Sensenbrenner declined to comment Friday after the bill failed, but said in an interview earlier in the week: “If the bill goes down, it’s going to have a major impact on things like tax reform and an infrastructure bill,” and Republicans voting no would have a hard time justifying their failure to take advantage of their best opportunity to end Obamacare after years of promising repeal.

All three House Democrats from Wisconsin would have joined a unified Democratic bloc in the House in voting no: Gwen Moore, Mark Pocan and Ron Kind.

“In the end there is not much about health care in their so-called health care bill,” Pocan said before the bill was pulled.

“This certainly wounds Paul Ryan. … Maybe he’ll learn from the process of trying to rush things without talking to Democrats, just trying to force a vote. I do think he comes out of this weakened. I think President Trump comes out of this weakened. … This is a Republican Party in disarray,” said Pocan.

Moore said in a statement: “The defeat of the American Health Care Act underscores the power of civic participation. This decision not only represents a victory for the seniors, children, and working- and middle-class Americans who otherwise would have lost their health coverage, but for everyone who exercised their civic duty in opposing such a misguided and dangerous proposal.”

She also said, “Let us recognize that this fight is far from over.”