Republicans Have Failed at Their Attempt to Repeal Obamacare

For seven years, Republicans have threatened to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's landmark achievement: the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare a system that has given health care to millions of Americans.

Republicans finally got theirchance in November, after Donald Trump became president. Republicans now had control of the three branches, and in May the House of Representatives passed a repeal and replace bill that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would leave 23 million more people uninsured.

It was up to Senate and the majority leader,Republican Mitch McConnell, to pass their version of the bill.

And in the end, they failed. And they failed in dramatic fashion in the middle of the night.

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After spending months failing to agree on a bill, Republicans tried to pass a stripped down version of a repeal, known as a "skinny bill," with the hope that they could iron out the details in Conference with Republican members of the House.

With no Democrats or Independents willing to vote on the bill, the GOP could only afford to lose two senators. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, and Susan Collins, from Maine, were already hard nos.

Most Republicans were committed to voting in the affirmative with the exception of one: John McCain, who just had surgery for a brain tumor.

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The Arizona senator, who made an impassioned speech earlierin the week about having government return to working in a bipartisan way, was not willing say how he was going to vote before the hearing, only telling reporters "wait for the show."

However, once on the floor, you can see something was off. The vote became delayed and multiple Republican colleagues were seen talking with McCain, including Vice President Mike Pence. At one point Trump called and talked to McCain.

However, nothing seemed to be working. And it was clear that McCain was going vote no when he started talking with Democrats:

McCain ended up indeed voting no. And he did it in the most dramatic way possible, in front of McConnell, using hand gestures and everything:

After the bill failed to pass, McConnell took to the floor and acknowledged that the plan to repeal Obamacare had been defeated, saying "It's time to move on."

Later, Trump sent out this tweet:

After the dramatic night, reporters caught up with McCain outside. They asked him why he took the vote. The Republican senator said, "because it was the right thing to do."

Source: Washington Post