UPDATE, 8 a.m. Tuesday: President Donald Trump took to Twitter early Tuesday to respond to news that Republicans don't have the votes needed to pass the Senate health care bill.
"We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return," Trump wrote.
“As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!”
Late Monday, Trump also tweeted: “Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!”
ORIGINAL STORY: Over the weekend, news broke that voting on the Senate health care bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act or BRCA, would be postponed to allow Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, to recover from blood clot surgery.
Now, two Republicans — Senator Mike Lee, R-UT, and Senator Jerry Moran, R-KS, — have defected from the bill, publicly stating that they cannot vote for it.
>> RELATED: It boggles the mind that Republicans have bungled health reform this badly
That's according to The Hill and statements from the senators themselves.
Losing those two leaves Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell without the simple majority needed to pass the bill, which will revise roughly one-sixth of the American economy without so much as a public hearing.
Both said they could not support “this version” of the BCRA, implying that a future version could still earn their support.
The objections of the four dissenting Republicans point to larger challenges that face Republicans who seek to undo the Affordable Care Act. Republican Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, for example, says the law does too much to the Affordable Care Act and threatens to strip Medicaid from her constituents; Lee says the law does not do enough.
The Congressional Budget Office, which was expected to score the bill today, will likely release the score of the Better Care Reconciliation Act on Tuesday. That, too, may prompt or reinforce GOP defectors.
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