Republican attempt to repeal Obamacare fails
A Republican attempt to dismantle Obamacare fell apart in the US Senate on Tuesday for the second time in two months in a serious defeat for President Donald Trump's domestic agenda.
The party was unable to win enough support from its own senators for a bill to repeal the 2010 healthcare law and decided not to put it to a vote.
"We basically ran out of time," said Senator Ron Johnson, a co-sponsor of the measure with Senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham, who told reporters the party would target healthcare again after trying to reform the US tax code.
The latest failure to carry through on a seven-year effort to roll back the law is an embarrassing setback for Republicans.
Mr Trump vowed frequently in the 2016 election campaign to scrap Obamacare, the signature domestic policy of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.
The Republicans may now struggle to achieve any major domestic policy successes in Congress this year, and they could be punished for it by voters at the November 2018 midterm elections.
After losing a Senate vote on repealing Obamacare in July, Republicans tried again this month with a bill that would take federal money and give it to the states in grants to regulate their own healthcare systems.
But several Republican senators refused to back the latest bill, including Senator Susan Collins, who on Monday complained that it undermined the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled, and weakened protections for people with pre-existing conditions, such as asthma, cancer and diabetes.
While Obamacare extended health insurance to some 20 million Americans, many Republicans attacked it as an unwarranted and costly government intrusion into healthcare, while also opposing taxes it imposed on the wealthy.
One main complaint by opponents of the Graham-Cassidy bill was that it would have meant sweeping cuts in Medicaid funding.
Mr Trump said on Tuesday his administration was disappointed in "certain so-called Republicans" who did not support the bill.
Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority in the Senate and at least two other Republican senators, John McCain and Rand Paul, had earlier rejected the bill.
