Senate leaders admitted they did not have the votes to pass a bill, hours after Trump railed against ‘certain so-called Republicans’ for refusing to vote for it

The latest Republican attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act died on Tuesday as it became obvious they did not have the votes to pass a bill that would leave millions without health insurance.

The admission of defeat came from Senate leader Mitch McConnell and the sponsors of the bill after party discussions over lunch on Capitol Hill left them in no doubt their slim majority could not survive a revolt.

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Republicans were at least one vote short in their effort to repeal Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement and were running out of time to force the bill through this week before a key procedural deadline.

They conceded defeat on one of their central promises of the last decade, hours after Donald Trump was left railing against “certain so-called Republicans” refusing to vote for the latest bill.

“To be clear, through events that are under our control and not under our control, we don’t have the votes,” said Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy, one of the authors of the measure. “We’ve made the decision since we don’t have the votes, we will postpone that vote. Am I disappointed? Absolutely.”

At a press conference after lunch, the bill’s authors insisted that Republicans supported the substance of their proposal, which would direct billions of dollars under the healthcare law to states in the form of block grants, transferring sweeping new discretion over how to deliver healthcare.

“Patience is a virtue,” co-author Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, said. “Time is actually on our side. The votes we were lacking were actually more about process than substance. We can fix the process and we can improve the substance, so that’s why I’m optimistic.”

Addressing conservative voters and donors who helped revive the repeal effort after it failed in a dramatic fashion in July, Graham pledged Republicans still had the “fight” left to ensure the law is replaced.

Senator John Thune of South Dakota, a member of Republican leadership, said he expected voters would be frustrated. “I don’t blame them,” Thune said. “They have to hold us accountable and we made a commitment. I hope they’ll have a little bit of patience.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lindsey Graham with John Barrasso, Bill Cassidy John Cornyn and Mitch McConnell. Photograph: Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters

On Tuesday, McConnell opened debate in the Senate by assailing the ACA, widely known as Obamacare, but offered no guidance on whether he would hold a vote or not. Hours later, he admitted defeat. Later that afternoon, McConnell made clear his caucus was moving on to other legislative priorities.

“We haven’t given up on changing the American healthcare system. We are not going to do that this week but it still lies ahead of us,” McConnell said. “We do think it’s time to turn to our twin priority: reforming the tax code. We’ve reached significant agreements inside the budget committee to go forward and I’m optimistic that we’ll achieve that.”

Trump has been frustrated by Republicans’ repeated failures on healthcare and has expressed displeasure with the senators who have stood in the way of repeal measures.

Asked on Tuesday if he would demand Republican leadership hold a vote on the healthcare bill, Trump replied: “We’ll see what happens.”

He said: “It’s going along and at some point, there will be a repeal and replace. But we’ll see whether that point is now or whether it will be shortly thereafter. But we are disappointed in certain so-called Republicans.”

His frustration came after the very public opposition of Susan Collins, Rand Paul and John McCain, who made clear they would vote no. That would be enough to sink the bill given the Republicans’ narrow 52-48 majority in the Senate.

On Monday, Collins announced her opposition moments after the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office published an analysis that found millions of Americans would lose their health insurance if the bill became law.

During a televised debate on healthcare on Monday night, Cassidy and Graham acknowledged the setbacks but vowed to push forward with their bill.

“We are going to press on,” Graham said during the CNN debate. “It’s OK to vote. It’s OK to fall short, if you do, for an idea that you believe in.”

For seven years, Republicans have won elections on the promise to repeal the healthcare law and replace it with a conservative plan that removes decision-making power from the federal government. Repealing the ACA was also a central thrust of Trump’s campaign, though his fickle expectations for its replacement have complicated Republican attempts to repeal the law.

To overhaul the healthcare system on a party-line vote, Republicans want to use a process called “reconciliation” that allows lawmakers to pass bills affecting taxes and spending with a simple majority. But the reconciliation process is time-bound, tied to a budget resolution Congress passed earlier this year, which ends on 30 September.

The analysis followed a frantic attempt by the bill’s authors to win over reluctant senators, revising the bill to deliver more federal funds to states where the senators were undecided, such as Alaska and Maine.

While Paul opposed the measure because he believed it did not go far enough in repealing the ACA, Collins and McCain, two of the three senators who derailed a repeal attempt in July, lamented a rushed process and urged a return to “regular order”, which includes public hearings and a full CBO analysis.



Reacting to the news, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said Americans would “breathe a sigh of relief” and commended the voters and activists who quickly mobilized against the bill.

“Our colleagues had no choice, in the face of opposition from one end of the land to the other, to withdraw their bill,” Schumer said. “Now we hope that Republicans don’t come back to this bill. It will meet the same fate that it did this time because the people didn’t like it.”

Schumer urged Republicans to resume the bipartisan negotiations over ways to stabilize the insurance markets.