Three Republican senators said Tuesday that they would oppose the procedural step to advance legislation as written to repeal Obamacare, stalling in just hours another effort Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to make good a seven-year campaign pledge by Republicans.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Shelley Moore Capito and Susan Collins said Tuesday that they would oppose the repeal plan after GOP plan collapsed on Monday night.
Minutes after McConnell finished promising on the Senate floor to continue, Capito, of West Virginia, announced her opposition to the repeal-only plan.
“My position on this issue is driven by its impact on West Virginians,” she said in a statement. “With that in mind, I cannot vote to repeal Obamacare without a replacement plan that addresses my concerns and the needs of West Virginians.”
She later tweeted she would not vote to move forward on a motion to proceed to repeal Obamacare without a replacement.
Collins also also said she was against the measure, her office said. Murkwoski told reporters on Tuesday afternoon she was opposed.
President Donald Trump told reporters during a luncheon with four Afghanistan veterans in the Roosevelt Room on Tuesday that he was “very disappointed” by Senate Republican’s inability to pass health care and that his new plan is to “let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us.”
Even still, Trump said Tuesday that he doesn’t think the Republican plan “is dead” but it “may not be as quick as we had hoped but it is going to happen.”
McConnell could only lose two senators’ support in order to advance the legislation.
The Republicans’ campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare came to an abrupt halt Monday night after Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas vowed to vote against the latest draft of the GOP’s health care bill, which would repeal and replace Obamacare. They joined two other Republican senators who had already rejected the proposal.
