Republicans in Congress were reeling Tuesday from the failure of their latest health bill as President Donald Trump said he’s willing to let Obamacare fail and called on the Senate to change one of its central rules.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the chamber will vote on a straight repeal -- with a two-year delay -- a plan that likely faces even steeper hurdles than his replacement bill.
Trump said on Twitter that the Senate, controlled by Republicans 52-48, should eliminate the 60-vote threshold for advancing bills that don’t use a special fast-track procedure.
"Even parts of full Repeal need 60. 8 Dems control Senate. Crazy!" the president said on Twitter. Trump also said he was willing to “let Obamacare fail” before moving forward on a replacement.
House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters he would like to see "the Senate move on something." The House passed its own version of a replacement bill in May.
"I’m worried that Obamacare will continue to stand and the law will continue to collapse and hurt people in the process," said Ryan of Wisconsin.
The inability to deliver on seven years of GOP promises to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would be the biggest failure yet for Trump and Republicans since they won control of Congress and the White House.
McConnell’s move came after two more Republican senators announced their opposition to the Republican leader’s plan, which he drafted largely in secret. The defections by Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas, in addition to previous opposition by GOP Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine, were enough to sink the measure.
Lee and Moran said in statements they wouldn’t support McConnell’s bill because it didn’t go far enough to address the rising cost of health care.
“We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy,” Moran said in a statement on Twitter. He criticized the way the health-care bill was written through a “closed-door process” and said the Senate must “start fresh” with open hearings and debate.