Congress Emerges From Another Health Care Failure Without A Clear Path Forward

Speaking to a audience of law enforcement officers on Long Island, N.Y., President Trump said, "They should have approved health care last night, but you can't have everything, boy oh boy." He added, "They've been working on that for seven years, can you believe that? The Swamp. But we'll get it done, we're going to get it done." Trump also stated that he "said from the beginning, let Obamacare implode and then do it. I turned out to be right, let Obamacare implode."

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, though clearly pleased with the outcome of the vote early Friday morning, insisted it was "not a time for celebration, it's a time for relief." He praised Republican Sen. John McCain as a hero for his vote against the Senate GOP repeal plan, calling it it an "amazing moment" — one he hopes will be "a turning point where the Senate turned back from it's partisanship and started to work together."

In his own statement, McCain said the failure of the GOP plan "presents the Senate with an opportunity to start fresh. It is now time to return to regular order with input from all of our members — Republicans and Democrats — and bring a bill to the floor of the Senate for amendment and debate."

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, another of the three Republicans to vote against the GOP plan (Alaska's Lisa Murkowski was the other), said she is pleased that Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has said he will hold hearings on reform measures.

Schumer suggested the two sides could find consensus on measures aimed at shoring up Obamacare, saying, "Nobody has said Obamacare is perfect." - More, NPR

Congress Emerges From Another Health Care Failure Without A Clear Path Forward

McCain Votes No, Dealing Potential Death Blow To Republican Health Care Efforts