The "skinny bill" strategy emerged after Republicans barely succeeded earlier this week in opening debate on health legislation in the narrowly divided Senate, winning the procedural vote to do so thanks only to Vice President Mike Pence breaking a 50-50 tie. "They've given us the House. We have to keep working at this until we get the job done".

The Senate, in a dramatic late-night vote that crept into the morning of 28 July, rejected the proposed "skinny repeal" legislation.

"The worst possible outcome is to pass something that most of us believe is a placeholder and it becomes the final product", Graham said. It's why I and many of my colleagues did as we promised and voted to repeal this failed law.

"Success breeds success. Failure tends to compound itself".

"This is a disappointment", McConnell said simply on the floor after the vote failed, indicating it was time to "move on" to other legislation.

They tried to knock down President Obama's legislation several times but while he was able to block their efforts while still in office. It would have also delayed a tax on medical devices and denied funding to Planned Parenthood for a year.

Yet as has happened every step of the way in the health care debate, no sooner did the "skinny bill" emerge than opposition arrayed against it. Yet party leaders - backed by outside groups - are signaling that they would probably move on to taxes. At some point we need to start talking about the moral crisis we face in this country.

The sudden announcement by Senators Lindsey Graham, Ron Johnson and John McCain threw their party's effort to overhaul Barack Obama's health care reforms into turmoil, highlighting the tensions and infighting over the path forward. Among all adults, 52 percent of voters favor some sort of repeal, with 34 percent favored repeal only if replacement could be enacted at the same time. His protagonist throughout that fight was McConnell, who argued that Republicans needed those six- and seven-figure checks to defeat Democrats and their labor union allies.

McConnell's move - gesture, really - was created to allow the ailing McCain, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, to complete what might be his last defense bill, something he cares deeply about.

Sen. Chris Coons, one of the senators in that huddle, said this was the moment that McCain informed them of his decision.

The Trump administration has been paying Obamacare's cost-sharing subsidies month-to-month, despite requests from insurers for a long-term commitment.

Two-hundred and nine years prior to that, Pennsylvania senator William Maclay visited the House after his chamber adjourned one day to watch members discuss the slave trade. "He was sort of leaving little hints, here and there", Coons said. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who Axios reported has been tasked with helping push back against the Russian Federation probe controversy, ripped Anthony Scaramucci in an interview on Laura Ingraham's radio show, saying he isn't helpful and is "full of himself".

"The neverending drama, turmoil, instability, chaos down the street is not helping anything - it's not", Dent said Friday morning. We did our work. Susan Collins of ME and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were widely considered out of reach for supporting the repeal, so the GOP could only lose one other vote among its 52 senators. All those people benefiting from the health care law ― and their friends and families and allies in the progressive organizing community ― began speaking out. "As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal", he said in a post to Twitter.

Other lawmakers in both parties, however, including McCain, have called for bipartisan negotiations to address the health law's lingering problems and uncertainty in markets. He had another meeting on those topics Friday.

Many Republicans acknowledged the bill's faults, but they were left in the extraordinary position of likely voting for a measure they do not want to become law.

On a week when the Boys Scouts and the USA military gave him some push-back, the collective, audible sigh from congressional Republicans growing increasingly frustrated, and now alarmed, by President Trump became a public admonishment. "Now, they can fix that, but only if they get their act together and pass pro-growth tax reform and take another stab at..."

Schumer said it isn't fair to blame McConnell for the failure of repeal.

How does United States health care stack up with the rest of the world? Dianne Feinstein, other Democrats came closer and closer, forming a large half-circle around the former Republican presidential nominee, who, make no mistake, has worked to thwart Democratic ambitions over the years as well.

"Have you decided how you'll vote?" members of the press corps, scrambling to keep up with the senior Arizona senator, asked in the basement of the Capitol. You have encouraged us in our mission - to provide quality news and watchdog journalism.