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If anyone has a question about the different priorities of our two major political parties, I suggest checking the "Votes in Congress" column in each Monday's Post-Dispatch. Several votes during the week of July 17-21 are proof positive that Republicans value profit at all cost, including the health and safety of American families.

On July 18, the topic was whether states should improve air quality on a schedule laid out in the Clean Air Act. St. Louis-area Republicans in the House all voted to push that question to 2025. We are talking about ground-level ozone or smog, which is well-known to be harmful to our health. Television weather forecasters tell us how bad the "air quality" is each evening, and the Missouri Department of Transportation puts signs on highways telling us to cut back on driving. Is that any way to solve this problem? Is our health less important than the profit for polluters?

When the Democrats in the House tried to add an amendment to that bill that would keep the current standards schedule in place if evidence could be shown that dirty air is harmful to outdoor workers, children and senior citizens, all the St. Louis-area Republicans nixed that amendment. Kudos to Rep. William Lacy Clay for putting the health of area families above corporate greed.

Steve Reed Manchester

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Republicans value profit over the health of American families - STLtoday.com

Republicans inability and unwillingness to pass legislation that benefits working- and middle-class voters may send voters scurrying back to the Democratic Party. At least thats what Democrats hope, and recent polling indicates they have reason for optimism.

According to a Harvard-Harris poll, 52 percent of voters trust Democrats to provide the best way forward on healthcare. Twenty-seven percent said they trust President Trump and only 21 percent said they trust Republicans in Congress, bringing the total GOP figure to 48 percent. Republicans however have made voters realize the positive aspects of Obamacare. (53 percent said they believe ObamaCare is working, rather than failing. Congress as a whole remains unpopular, but 67 percent of the respondents give the GOPa negative rating while only 59 percent disapprove of Democrats.

The extended debate on health care, I would suggest, makes things even more dicey for Republicans. The substance of the bill (e.g., slash Medicaid) certainly has alarmed voters, but additionally, there are at least two possible consequences for Republicans.

First, Republicans continue to chew up the clock, making it that much more difficult to meet deadlines for the budget and debt ceiling. The window of opportunity for tax reform is also closing fast. In short, the Republicans may wind up being tagged as both incompetent and malevolent.

Second, whether or not Republicans pass a bill, we see, on one hand, a unified Democratic Party and, on the other, Republicans attacking Republicans. President Trump lashed out at Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), one of two Republicans who voted against the motion to proceed. Trump claimed Murkowski really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Murkowski shot back: Every day shouldnt be about winning elections. How about just doing a little bit of governing around here. Thats what Im here for. Moderate Republicans will applaud her push back while bemoaning the cavalier attitude of right-wing Republicans who seem to have no concern for the substance of what they are trying to pass. Right-wing voices in the conservative echo chamber are already excoriating moderates for repelling efforts to slash Medicaid and deliver tax cuts for the rich. In other words, Trump and the health-care debacle are underscoring the divide in the GOP between the anti-government right-wingers and moderate reform-minded Republicans. Candidates in competitive seats will need both in the 2018 midterm elections.

Moreover, Trumps effort to revive the culture wars has further divided the party and runs the risk of cementing the GOPs image as the party of intolerant white men. The Post reports on the votes of two Virginia Republicans on a measure to stop the military from paying for gender transitionsurgery and hormone therapy. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) of Northern Virginiawas among the 24 Republicanswho joined all Democrats in voting against the amendment. . . .Rep. Scott W. Taylor (R), a freshman from Virginia Beach, voted for the amendment, despite a record of supporting LGBT causes through legislation. Comstock may wind up being tarred by the sentiments of others in her party and losing the support of her more conservative constituents. Taylor meanwhile will be lambasted as a pawn of the far right. To be blunt, its a no-win issue for a party whose popularity is already under water.

In sum, the party that holds the White House almost always loses House seats in the first midterm. In the case of Trump Republicans, however, the endless fight over health care, the absence of other legislative achievements and the introduction of lose-lose social issues will make it that much more difficult for the GOP to keep its majority. In the RealClearPolitics average in generic congressional polling Democrats already have a nine-point lead. Republicans should worry that by Election Day 2018 the deficit will be in double digits.

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Who's going to trust Republicans after this fiasco? - Washington Post

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell walks through the Capitol on Thursday. Drew Angerer / Getty Images

In the rushed process of trying to come up with legislation, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released an analysis even later on Thursday night. Republicans only released the part of the score that analyzed only the impact on the deficit. Shortly afterward, Democrats and the CBO released the rest of the analysis, which found that 16 million people would lose their health insurance in 2018. Premiums would rise 20 percent each year over the next decade, the analysis found.

It's still unclear if Republicans have the 50 votes they need to pass it. A late-night concession from House Speaker Paul Ryan, promising to enter into negotiations with the Senate to produce a beefed-up version of a health care bill, secured the votes of many Republicans.

"If moving forward requires a conference committee, that is something the House is willing to do," House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement. "The reality, however, is that repealing and replacing Obamacare still ultimately requires the Senate to produce 51 votes for an actual plan."

Ryan's wobbly statement about a conference committee, however, didn't convince everyone. He spoke on the phone with more than half a dozen senators over the phone later in the evening, giving them his "assurances" that the House would enter into a conference committee. His statement, however, indicated that if an agreement is reached in House and Senate negotiations, the Senate would vote on it first.

But holdouts remain, including Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and John McCain, R-Ariz., both of whom have been critical of the secretive process. The positions of Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are unknown.

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Republicans can only afford to lose the support of two Republicans in order for it to pass. Vice President Mike Pence is prepared to be the tie-breaking vote.

The vote is expected to take place at some point late into the night or early morning, in whats been called a "Vote-a-Rama," where senators will vote consecutively on as many amendments as they want.

The skinny repeal is far from Republicans campaign promise of also rolling back Medicaid expansion, insurance subsidies, taxes, and insurance regulations.

Over the past two days, Republicans rejected a plan that would have partially repealed and replaced Obamacare and a measure that would have just repealed it. The repeal vote was the same bill that passed the Senate and the House in 2015 when former President Barack Obama vetoed it.

"It was deeply disappointing to see those six Republicans who voted for repeal in 2015 to turn around and vote against it last night," said Tim Phillips, head of the Charles and David Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity.

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Republicans Release 'Skinny' Obamacare-Repeal Bill - NBCNews.com

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and others are standing up for Attorney General Jeff Sessions after President Trump suggested he wants Sessions to resign. (The Washington Post)

For arguably the first time, Republicans are starting to draw red lines in an effort tosavePresident Trump from himself.

As Trump weighs firing one or both of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and special counsel Robert Mueller, a pair of GOP senators is promising measures to thwart or dissuade him.Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said Wednesday that his panel would not confirm a new attorney general to replace Sessions this year. Then Thursday morning, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said he would introduce legislation to protect Muellerand warned it could be the beginning of the end of Trump's presidency if he tried to fire the special counsel.

Both moves are unprecedented.For perhaps the first time, Senate Republicans with real sway are talking about concrete steps tocounteract Trump's impulses and prevent constitutional crises.

Republicans have spent plenty of time talking tough about Trump, mind you. Plenty of them said Trump's comments about women on that Access Hollywood tape were beyond the pale, and some even urged him to drop out of the presidential race. Many of these same members, such as Rep.Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), would later embrace Trump. (Chaffetz has since retired from Congress.)

Like Graham, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been among the most vocal Trump critics in the GOP, including givingabrutal speech denouncing Trump's worldviewin February in Munich. But even that speech didn't call out Trump by name, andMcCain has frustrated Trump's opponents by not backing up his words with actions, such as voting against Trump's agenda.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), too, has been called upon to occasionally denounce Trump. And sometimes he has obliged. But he has also assumed a nonconfrontational approach to dealing with the president, repeatedly brushing off his tweets including as recently as Thursday morning in favor of trying to work with Trump to get things done.

There have been some threats of legislation or actions by Republicans to stop Trump. In January, for instance, GOP senators led by McCain threatened a bill to prevent Trump from lifting sanctions against Russia. Similarly, Graham in March suggested he might call for a special committee to look into Trump's baseless allegation that President Barack Obama wiretapped him.

But this is the first time the stakes have been this high. And Grassley and Graham are going on-record withspecific actions and threats.

Look, politics is an inherently disingenuous business. Sometimes you say something with a little extra conviction to send a message, or you make threats that you're not 100 percent committed to backing up. Politicians also have to deal with the realities of alienating a president who has significant sway over whether they can pass their agenda. There is no doubt Republicans, after denouncing Trump repeatedly on the campaign trail and seeing him win anyway, have grown gun-shy. This is the moment he's gone too far and I can cut him off, they've thought so many times, only to be proven wrong in short order.

I'm not one of those people who thinks McCain can't denounce Trump one day and vote for his agenda the next. McCain is a conservative Republican, so he tends to support Republican legislation. He wants to replace Obamacare, so he voted to move forward with a debate on doing just that this week, despite his reservations about the process.

But at some point, Republicans who think Trump is truly flirting with a constitutional crisis will need to back up their tough rhetoric with actions. Grassley and Graham seem to be at least edging toward doing that perhaps recognizing the uniquely fraught options Trump is apparently considering.

We'll see how much follow-through there is. But at some point, the rubber must meet the road, or it just amounts to a bunch of talk.

Update: Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) is also speaking out now, telling Trump not to plan on a possible recess appointment to replace Sessions. "Forget about it," Sasse said. Sasse didn't appear to threaten specific action, though Republicans as a whole could thwart a recess appointment.

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Republicans are starting to draw red lines on Trump firing Sessions and Mueller - Washington Post

Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan speaks at his weekly press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 27, 2017.

The officials who issued the statement House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch have recently been meeting to strike a joint plan that the GOP wants to push through Congress this year.

When President Donald Trump won the White House and Republicans held on to both chambers of Congress in November, tax reform became a top priority for the united government, as the GOP sees it as a lever for spurring faster economic growth. The issue has so far simmered in the background as the GOP struggles to reach a deal to repeal Obamacare, another key campaign plank that has repeatedly stalled amid party divisions.

The border adjustment proposal was a key revenue-raising plank of the plan House Republicans unveiled last year. It taxes imports but lets exports go untaxed.

Retailers that get many of their inputs from overseas raised concerns about the proposal and said it would pass costs on to consumers. Numerous senators also knocked the provision, leading to doubts in recent months that it could become part of a joint tax proposal.

Many questions remain about what shape the plan will take. While the White House released a brief summary of its goals for tax reform earlier this year, it has released little about specific policy since.

In a statement responding to the GOP leaders, Finance Committee ranking member Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said, "Republicans are dripping tax ideas out like a leaky faucet with no specifics to back them up."

In its earlier outline, the Trump administration called for reducing income tax brackets from seven to three, with a top rate of 35 percent and lower rates of 25 percent and 10 percent. The proposal would chop the corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent.

The White House said there will be a "one-time tax" on the trillions of dollars held by corporations overseas.

It would include various other provisions like the elimination of most deductions.

Questions have grown about how low Republicans can take business or individual rates while keeping the plan revenue neutral.

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Republicans scrap border adjustment from tax reform plan - CNBC