The vote that never occurred may very well be long regretted by conservatives.

When Trump won, many of us thought there'd be swift, substantial change.  We were pleased with the executive orders.  Then – surprise, surprise – Paul Ryan and team created a legislative blitzkrieg.  The initial attack began a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.  Built in was a "block granting" of Medicaid – the first time an out-of-control entitlement had seriously been up for constraint.  The tax savings from the repeal and the Medicaid reform were designed to help offset the spending we need for infrastructure and a tax cut.  Brilliant!

The Ryan and company plan to connect the dots – health care reform, a tax cut, and an infrastructure program – would have gone a long way to Making America Great Again.  The plan was bold.  Conservative. Trump signed off.  Was it perfect?  Of course not.  But the Gipper would have gone along. 

Who could have imagined that a small group of House conservatives would actually go wobbly at game time?  Lawmakers never vote on the perfect.  If you've ever wondered why Democrats always seem to prevail, a lot has to do with taking a long-term approach and building on small incremental victories.  Conservatives cannot simply scheme for scalps – Boehner and on to Ryan and an interview on conservative talk radio, blah, blah, blah.  That isn't accomplishing anything.

It's time to forge some alliances, work with the leadership and the president, and stop talking and start doing.  And at least one conservative has got the message – Tom Poe has quit the House Freedom Caucus.

Poe said on CNN's New Day that the conservative caucus "continues to be the opposition caucus against anything in the Republican Party."

The Texas congressman said that while Republican leadership had attempted to ignore the concerns of its most conservative members in the past, caucus members were key players in the negotiation of the American Health Care Act, which Trump and Ryan pulled before a scheduled vote in the House on Friday.

"There's nothing that could be added to the bill that the Freedom Caucus would ever vote yes on," Poe said.  "I got the opinion that there are some members of the Freedom Caucus – they'd vote no against the Ten Commandments if it came up for a vote."

Poe said that although the AHCA was "not a perfect bill," Republicans "promised for years" that they would repeal President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, the health care law better known as Obamacare, if they held the White House.

"We voted 60 times to repeal Obamacare," Poe said.  "Then when it came down to repealing it, when it actually counted, people just said, 'Nah, I'm not going to vote to repeal the bill.'"

The folks at Conservative HQ link President Trump's declining poll numbers to cuts in Medicaid.  Well –duh.  Does any fiscal conservative think cutting anything is easy?  Do conservatives genuinely believe in free markets?

I'm hoping more Freedom Caucus members eat some humble pie as Representative Poe has and work their way back to the Ryan-Trump strategy of cutting health care costs, tax cuts, and infrastructure.  This was a "go big or go home" play.  The conservatives went home – too chicken even to vote.  Victory – Obama and Obamacare.