Facing assured defeat, Republican leaders decided Tuesday not to even hold a vote on the GOP’s latest attempt to repeal the Obama health care law, surrendering on their last-gasp effort to deliver on the party’s banner campaign promise.

Leaving a lunch of Republican senators who’d gathered to discuss their next steps on the issue, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other leaders decided that “the votes are not there, not to have the vote.” Another lawmaker leaving the gathering, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., shook his head and said, “No,” when asked if a roll call would occur.

The decision marked the latest defeat on the issue for President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. In July, the Republican-controlled Senate rejected three similar GOP measures, a failure that infuriated conservatives and prompted Trump to spend much of his summer tweeting criticism at McConnell for falling short.

One of the measure’s sponsors, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the GOP fight to erase President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care overhaul would continue.

“We’re going to get there,” he said. “We’re going to fulfill our promise.”

Rejection became all but inevitable on Monday after Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins announced she opposed the legislation. She joined Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Texas’ Ted Cruz who’d already said they opposed the measure. Cruz aides said he was seeking changes that would let him vote yes.

Because of their narrow majority and unified Democratic opposition, Republicans can lose just two GOP votes and still push the legislation through the Senate. A vote or a decision by McConnell, R-Ky., to forego a roll call was needed this week because procedural protections against a bill-killing filibuster by Democrats expire Sunday.

A new analysis finds that 34 states and Washington, D.C., would lose money under the newest version of the Republican health care bill.

This is despite last-minute changes to the legislation.

Overall, states would get $205 billion less in federal health care money from 2020-2026, according to the analysis from consulting firm Avalere Health, which was released Tuesday.

States that expanded Medicaid to cover low-income adults, as well as those where lots of residents have signed up for subsidized private health insurance, were more likely to be losers under the Graham-Cassidy bill.

The latest changes soften the magnitude of the funding shifts, but the end result remains similar.

Half the 30 states President Donald Trump won last year would lose money.

Losses would grow over time. Sixteen states would gain money.

President Donald Trump said he’s “disappointed in certain so-called Republicans” who have opposed the proposed bill.

Trump told reporters at the White House that he’s “very disappointed by a couple of senators,” adding, “We don’t know why they did it.”

The president says “at some point there will be a repeal and replace” of the health care law. But Republican leaders in the Senate are conceding that their prospects for repealing the law are dismal.

(AP)