The Senate has tried pretty much every idea possible to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. This time, they introduced what ABC News calls a “skinny” repeal of Obamacare—meaning they wanted to strip down the health care measure instead of getting rid of it. The most important part of the “skinny repeal” was its removal of Obamacare’s individual mandate, which says that every American must have health care or face a penalty. It also would have defunded Planned Parenthood, and removed the requirement that employers with more than 50 employees provide health insurance.
After the last loss in the fight to repeal Obamacare, this honestly just seemed desperate. But Republicans want to fulfill the promise they’ve been making for years to repeal Obamacare—even if it doesn’t fully repeal the law and still strips 16 million people of health insurance. Very early Friday morning, the Senate voted on the “skinny repeal” 49-51. Before I go any further, let’s take a look at President Trump’s ~shocking~ response to the vote:
3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017
Those three Republicans included Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who have voted “No” on every version of the GOP health care bill that’s come to a vote. But this time, Sen. John McCain joined the dissenting party as well. McCain was recently diagnosed with brain cancer and dramatically returned to the Senate after a hospital stay in order to vote on the bill.
According to an anonymous source who talked to NBC News, McCain spoke with Trump on the phone the night before the vote, and POTUS told him to vote for the bill. But McCain had his own plan. In fact, CNN reports that he wasn’t even in the room when his name was called. But just after, he walked in and said “No” with a silent thumbs down, before going back to his seat. Again, dramatic!
Skinny repeal fell short because it fell short of our promise to repeal & replace Obamacare w/ meaningful reform https://t.co/tZISIvccOO
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) July 28, 2017
I definitely wouldn’t want to be Majority Leader Mitch McConnell right now.
“We told our constituents we would vote that way and when the moment came, the moment came, most of us did,” McConnell said, according to CNN. “This is clearly a disappointment…It’s time to move on.”