US Senate Votes 51-48 on Budget Resolution to Repeal Obamacare

The House is to vote on the measure on Friday, although some Republicans have misgivings about setting the repeal effort in motion without a better idea of the replacement plan.

The House voted 227-198 to instruct committees to draft legislation by a target date of January 27 that would repeal the 2010 Affordable Health Care Act, often called Obamacare. No Democrats voted for the resolution.

“This is a critical first step toward delivering relief to Americans who are struggling under this law”, said the House speaker, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, in a rare floor speech. “This is nothing short of a rescue mission”, Ryan said.

Ryan’s comments come after Trump said Wednesday that he wants to repeal and replace the law “essentially simultaneously“.

The vote was expected and largely along party lines, with nine Republicans voting against.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a medical doctor, broke ranks with fellow Republicans to vote against the resolution over concerns that Republicans did not yet have a replacement plan. Sen.

Rep. John Katko of Camillus was among only nine House Republicans on Friday who opposed a resolution to jumpstart the repeal of Obamacare, bucking his party on a top goal for this Congress. For the past six years, the GOP has failed to coalesce around a viable Obamacare replacement plan.

The Senate will vote on well over 100 amendments to a budgetary resolution in what is called a “vote-a-rama.” “We’re building all of these bills through our committee process, and so when we have all of those ready is when we’re going to move forward”.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California said, “Republicans are feeding their ideological obsession in repealing the ACA”. She argued the repeal would damage Medicare and Medicaid, which are now wedded to the Affordable Care Act.

“I rely on the Affordable Care Act to be able to purchase my own insurance”, Jones said. “They want to cut savings and run. And we haven’t seen what the proposals are”. “This will provide opportunities for ACP and the many others committed to coverage to continue the fight to preserve the ACA and its key coverage and patient protections”.

Trump said that while politically his team could “sit back, and wait, and watch, and criticize, and we could be a Chuck Schumer and sit back and criticize it”, but ultimately, “it wouldn’t be fair to the people”.

Early on Thursday, the Senate voted 51-48 in favor of a nonbinding Republican-backed budget measure that will make it easier to pass repeal legislation, which could be voted on as early as next month.