Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellObama calls on Senate not to fill Ginsburg's vacancy until after election Planned Parenthood: 'The fate of our rights' depends on Ginsburg replacement Progressive group to spend M in ad campaign on Supreme Court vacancy MORE (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that ObamaCare will stay put, sounding resigned to the law continuing even as the House tries to revive repeal efforts.

"It’s pretty obvious we were not able in the House to pass a replacement," McConnell told reporters. "Our Democratic friends ought to be pretty happy about that because we have the existing law in place and I think we’re just going to have to see how that works out."

"We believe it will not work out well, but we’ll see. They have an opportunity now to have the status quo go forward, regretfully," he added.

ADVERTISEMENT

House Republican leaders said this week that they are not giving up on the repeal effort. But the Senate was wary of the previous legislation from the start, and McConnell spoke of the effort in the past tense.

"I want to thank the president and the Speaker, they went all out to try to pass a repeal and replacement," McConnell said. "I’m sorry that didn’t work, but our Democratic friends now have the law that they wrote in place, and we’ll see how that works out." Senate Republican leaders still say that if the House somehow finds a way to pass a repeal and replacement bill, they could consider it. But they are not sounding hopeful.

"It’s going to be entirely up to them, what they can pass," he said.

Democrats said they would be happy to work with Republicans on healthcare reform — if they drop their repeal efforts.