Senate votes to advance GOP healthcare reform

Monday evening, Murphy was one of many Democrats who spoke on the Senate floor, making a final plea for Republicans to back off from their plans to repeal Obamacare and to work with Democrats to improve the health care law. Today we took a step towards that goal, and I look forward throughout the week to discussing with my colleagues the importance of repealing and replacing Obamacare.

“Obamacare isn’t the answer, but doing nothing to try to solve the problems it has created isn’t the answer either”, Heller said in a statement.

“Look, we need to get the work done”, Murkowski told reporters later. But that was not the case-he voted “aye” for a bill. I’m disappointed that the Senate has decided to make this a partisan process in an attempt to jam through proposals that would threaten the health and economic well-being of millions of Americans.

And then, in typical McCain fashion, he took to the floor and blasted both the Senate’s draft health care bill and the process that produced it.

Prior to the vote, McConnell reminded his fellow Republican senators they’d waited for years for the opportunity to dismantle the the signature legislative accomplishment of former President Barack Obama.

“I just wanted to convey to him that I wanted to continue to be a positive influence on trying to get as good a bill as possible”, Johnson said.

Earlier McCain, 80, received an ovation from his fellow senators when he entered the chamber to cast a vote to open debate.

While the Senate’s vote Tuesday does not necessarily mean a health care bill will pass, “no” votes by three Republican senators would have effectively killed the plan.

Had McCain voted “no”, the bill would have been killed in the water.

Democrats still remain decidedly against the bill, while Republicans claim it will lower premiums and be a better option for the American people.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, addresses a crowd outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington protesting the Republican health care bill on Tuesday.

UPDATE 2: Pence has voted to proceed with debate.

“In a way this was amusing today because they didn’t know what they were voting for”, said Sen.

A total of 50 Republican Senators voted to begin discussions on amending the American Health Care Act the House passed in May.

The Senate will vote on repealing Obamacare with no replacement.

Several GOP senators have expressed concerns about what a so-called clean repeal, as passed in 2015, would do to insurance markets.

In his speech, McCain criticized Congress and said that the Senate has essentially gotten nothing done in 2017.