Overnight the Senate failed to pass a so-called “skinny” repeal of Obamacare, when three Republican Senators (Collins, Murkowski and McCain) voted against the measure.
Whether the “skinny” repeal was an actual repeal was doubtful. As unveiled late last night, it removed the mandate, the medical device tax, and defunded Planned Parenthood, but it was something of a charade. Several Senators voted for it only after Paul Ryan gave some assurance that the Senate bill could be subject to a conference with the House, and would not be passed by the House as is.
But passing the “skinny” repeal kept hope alive that there might emerge some meaningful form of Obamacare repeal. The defeat of the bill killed any form of Obamacare repeal for the foreseeable future.
Collins and Murkowski always were expected to vote No, but McCain was the surprise. Even though Murkowski and McCain* had voted in 2015 for full, clean repeal of Obamacare, they didn’t have the guts to put their votes where their mouths had been just a couple of years ago.
It became clear to people watching the proceedings live that something was up as McCain laughed it up with Collins, Murkowski and Democrats:
This video shows the timeline of the vote, and McCain huddling with Democrats and even hugging Dianne Feinstein before his vote:
Here is video of McCain casting his No vote:
McCain’s explanation is that he voted No because it wasn’t a full “repeal and replace.” But of course, he killed any chance of that emerging from conference:
For his part, Trump was restrained in his reaction (at least as of this writing). He repeated the claim that he’ll just let Obamacare fail, then pick up the pieces. But I suspect he still holds out hope that something can be done in Congress this year:
This was a failure for Mitch McConnell, who gave a good floor speech after the vote about the betrayal of Republican voters, but then switched to asking Democrats for their ideas. Their ideas, of course, are to keep and expand Obamacare.:
Ted Cruz is right, this was a betrayal:
Democrats and the media are celebrating McCain:
I think the natural inclination of the Republican electorate should be to burn the party down. That certainly was my first reaction.
But I think what is more needed is a 2010-style Tea Party insurrection.
[Featured Image via Mike DeBonis Twitter]
[This post was updated multiple times][*This post originally indicated Collins voted for the 2015 repeal, but Neoneocon called my attention to an article at The Hill indicating Collins voted No on that vote.”]
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