WATCH: Mitch McConnell Again Fails to Repeal ObamaCare in Huge Defeat for GOP, Huge Win for America

‘Skinny’ ObamaCare Repeal Dies on Senate Floor, 49-51

Just past 1:30 Friday morning, literally in the dead of night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s scheme to repeal ObamaCare died. Once again. It is a devastating blow to the 75-year old senior Senator from Kentucky, two-and-a-half years in to his tenure as the leader of the Senate Republicans. 

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) traveled to D.C. after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. Earlier in the week he cast the decisive vote to allow the Senate to begin the process of repealing ObamaCare. Early Friday, he joined 46 Democrats, two independents, and fellow Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in voting “nay” on the “skinny repeal” bill, officially known as the “Health Care Freedom Act.”

It died, 49-51.

President Donald Trump was furious, lashing out on Twitter by telegraphing his anger and issuing a threat at 2:25 in the morning:

Here’s the moment the bill, which would have defunded Planned parenthood and forced an additional 16 million off their health care, died:

But unlike the “skinny repeal,” Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act will not die. 

Since Donald Trump became president, McConnell has been working his plan to repeal ObamaCare. This latest ploy involved a week-long series of votes on various bills, some to fully repeal former President Barack Obama’s signature legislation, others to “repeal and replace.” 

What is likely to happen next is President Trump will continue to attack ObamaCare, and may choose to test the powers of his office by refusing to fund ObamaCare subsidies, threatening the viability of the exchanges. Time will tell.

But supporters of ObamaCare, now fully at least half the country, should know that the intense actions they took, by calling their Senators, worked. For seven years Republicans have promised to repeal ObamaCare. Now, with total control of Congress and the White House, they couldn’t even pass the smallest attempt to do so.

Republicans will again try to repeal ObamaCare, and they will succeed only if Americans don’t take the threat of tens of millions losing coverage just as seriously as they did this time.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, when the bill died, announced, “We are not celebrating. We are relieved.”

Some responses via Twitter: