BY Garth A. Rose
After several attempts since 2010 when President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, Republicans again failed to either replace or repeal that law.
The last attempt to replace the ACA, or Obamacare, came early on Friday morning. Then, US Senate Republicans failed to get the votes to pass what they called the “skinny” repeal of the ACA.
Three Republican senators: Senator John McCain of Arizona, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, and Senator Lisa Murkowski of Arizona refused to vote with their colleagues.
Blow to Trump
The failed vote is regarded as a blow to President Trump. He has focused on the replacement of Obamacare as his primary policy objective since he assumed office in January.
Senator McCain who returned to the Senate earlier this week after brain surgery and a diagnosis of brain cancer cast a no vote regarded as shocking. However, in addressing the Senate after he voted this week for the Senate to proceed in putting forward the bill to replace Obama care, he indicated he would not vote for an imperfect bill.
On Thursday afternoon, McCain and Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, appearing on a TV broadcast, said they would not vote for the “skinny” version of the replacement bill. Graham referred to the watered-down version of the bill as “a fraud.” Both McCain and Graham said they would not vote to approve the new version of the bill unless they were assured it would not be the bill to advance to President’s Trump to be signed into law. However, Graham did vote for the bill on Friday morning.
Bipartisan negotiations the only way
McCain also told the Senate in his address earlier this week, that the preferred way of getting a revised healthcare bill was through bipartisan negotiation between Republicans and Democrats.
After the latest failed vote Senate Majority Leader Republican Mitch McConnell said, “This is clearly a disappointing moment.”
The overwhelming majority of Caribbean-Americans in South Florida support Obamacare. Nonetheless, most also agree there are flaws in the program. They also want Republicans and Democrats to work together in Congress to fix these flaws.
