Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried hard his best to pass a Republican health care law.
CREDIT: Getty Images
Republican senators’ last best effort to end Obamacare went down to defeat in the wee hours this morning, with Arizona Senator John McCain casting the deciding vote. Moments later, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced with a catch in his voice that it was time to shelve the effort to repeal Obamacare, at least for the moment, and move on to other legislation.
It was a highly emotional moment in the Senate in a week that’s already had its fair share. At about 1:30 am Eastern time Friday, Arizona Senator John McCain walked onto the floor of the senate, held out his arm for a moment and then literally gave the thumbs down to Obamacare repeal, voting no on a bill nicknamed “skinny repeal.” Skinny repeal would have eliminated the individual mandate requiring those with no health insurance to pay a tax penalty, and the employer mandate requiring businesses with more than 50 employees to provide them insurance. Other than that, it would have left Obamacare mostly unchanged.
Republicans lead in the Senate by only 52 to 48 votes, with Vice President Mike Pence able to also vote in case of a tie. With Democratic senators united against Obamacare repeal, Republicans could afford to lose no more than two votes in their caucus for a bill to pass. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska had already signaled that they intended to vote no, and they did, despite an alleged phone call from Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to Murkowski, threatening to cancel job-creating federal programs in Alaska.
Without Collins and Murkowski, skinny repeal needed the vote of every other Republican senator in order to pass. So McCain’s no vote killed the bill. It was met with gasps and a smattering of applause.
Skinny repeal means fatter premiums.
The controversial skinny repeal bill was a very stripped-down version of Obamacare repeal that failed to accomplish most Republican goals and simply abolished two of Obamacare’s most unpopular provisions. That might have played well with constituents, but insurance groups and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office warned it would lead to dramatically higher premiums because fewer healthy people would buy insurance.
No one in the Senate liked skinny repeal or wanted it to become law. McConnell had introduced as a last-ditch effort after two other bills, one to replace Obamacare with a Republican health care bill and one to simply repeal it without replacement were both defeated. Its only purpose was to get some sort of Obamacare repeal through the Senate, allowing for a conference in which House and Senate Republicans could attempt to negotiate a bill that might pass in both chambers.
But some Republican senators, including McCain, resisted the idea of voting for a bill they didn’t actually want in the hopes that it might be replaced with something better. In particular, they worried that the House might pass skinny repeal in order to rack up some sort of Obamacare victory, and then it would be the law of the land.
Moments after the vote, McConnell gave a heartfelt speech expressing his disappointment that no version of Obamacare repeal had passed. He laid responsibility for dealing with Obamacare’s failures squarely upon his Democratic colleagues and asked them, “What are your ideas?”
‘Obamacare was hardly perfect.’
Then Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York took the floor. He began by saying that Senate Democrats were relieved on behalf of the people who would have lost their health insurance under the proposed Republican laws. But he also acknowledged that, “Obamacare was hardly perfect. It did a lot of good things, but it needs improvement.” He invited Republican senators to work with Democrats to make those improvements.
He reminded his colleagues of McCain’s dramatic speech on Tuesday. McCain, who had cranial surgery and had just been diagnosed with brain cancer, rose from his sickbed to return to Washington and vote to begin debate on Obamacare repeal. That day, too, his vote made all the difference, since Collins and Murkowski voted against even opening discussion about it (as did all the Democratic senators).
His vote cast, McCain made a heartfelt speech imploring his fellow senators to work together and create health care legislation “full of compromises.” Schumer nearly broke down in tears as he reminded his colleagues of that earlier speech and, in his turn, urged them to try finding bipartisan solutions to America’s health care problems.
What happens next? President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the best political strategy for Republicans is to leave Obamacare alone and let it fail on its own, allowing them to avoid owning that failure. Since Obamacare needs federal funding to function, leaving it alone could indeed cause the program to fail if the government stops providing those funds.
That could be how this plays out. Or Republicans could take a few weeks to regroup and then try again, as they did in the House after their first attempt to pass Obamacare repeal failed. That persistence paid off when they passed the American Health Care Act on their second try in May. On the other hand, Republicans have a very sizable majority in the house.
Or, both Republicans and Democrats could surprise us and actually start working together. It’s hard to imagine that these days. But that would give us the best shot at a health insurance law that actually works, and can last.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.