On Tuesday afternoon, Senate Republican leaders officially made the decision to not hold a vote on the last attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare, The Daily Beast reports. This decision has been made right before the GOP’s end-of-the-month deadline. Senators Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) and Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) have been rushing and pushing for the vote, but eventually chose not to hold a vote due to lack of support of the bill.
“We don’t have the votes.” Senator Cassidy stated after a caucus lunch on Tuesday, “We’ve made the decision that because we don’t have the votes, we will postpone the vote.”
The effort to replace and repeal by the GOP received its latest setback on Monday, when Senator Susan Collins announced she would vote “No” on Graham-Cassidy, joining Senators Rand Paul and John McCain. This latest effort has been the pushed before the Senate’s budget reconciliation rules expire on the final day of September. After September 30, any legislation will need 60 votes instead of the previous 50.
Now that the bill has been pulled and we await the future of healthcare, the Affordable Care Act will remain intact.