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Republican Efforts To Repeal Portions Of Obamacare Through ‘Skinny’ Bill Fail In The Senate

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Senate Republicans’ efforts to repeal portions of Obamacare failed narrowly late Thursday night, thanks to three defecting GOP senators.

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Republican efforts to repeal portions of Obamacare failed narrowly in the Senate late Thursday night by a vote of 49-51.

The so-called “skinny repeal” bill would have undone portions of the Affordable Healthcare Act — namely eliminating the individual mandate and defunding Planned Parenthood.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who returned to Washington this week after undergoing surgery to remove a blood clot and a tumor in his brain, voted against the bill along with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), and every Democratic senator.

“I’ve stated time and time again that one of the major failures of Obamacare was that it was rammed through Congress by Democrats on a strict-party line basis without a single Republican vote,” McCain said in a statement. “We must now return to the correct way of legislating and send the bill back to committee, hold hearings, receive input from both sides of aisle, heed the recommendations of nation’s governors, and produce a bill that finally delivers affordable health care for the American people. We must do the hard work our citizens expect of us and deserve.”

President Trump tweeted his disappointment shortly after the vote took place.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890820505330212864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.azcentral.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Farizona%2F2017%2F07%2F28%2Fjohn-mccain-skinny-repeal-republican-health-care-aca-obamacare%2F519165001%2F

The “skinny repeal” bill was a significantly scaled down version of the American Health Care Act, an earlier plan to repeal and replace Obama’s signature health-care law that failed dramatically in the Senate earlier this year.