July 28, 2017

Here’s the Exact Moment Obamacare Repeal Died in the Senate

Watch John McCain cast the deciding vote.

Ron Sachs/CNP/Zuma

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

In a dramatic late-night vote, three Republican senators joined every Democrat in narrowly defeating the so-called “skinny” repeal of Obamacare. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) cast the deciding votes, ending—for now—the GOP’s efforts to dismantle former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. For several hours leading up to the vote, it was unclear what McCain would do. Democrats on the Senate floor applauded after he voted no.

McCain, who has cancer, returned to the Capitol earlier this week while recovering from surgery. He cast the deciding procedural vote in favor of beginning debate on several Republican proposals to repeal Obamacare. All those proposals were voted down.

In the run-up to the vote on the skinny repeal early Friday, the GOP leadership kept an earlier vote open for more than an hour while Vice President Mike Pence appeared to be lobbying McCain to support the bill. It seems that whatever Pence said wasn’t enough.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate