Senator John McCain shocked his party when he turned his thumb down and voted “no” to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But it was two staunch female Republican senators — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — who fought the Senate repeal from the start.
The professions of a desire for cooperation on changing the Affordable Care Act were as profuse on Friday as the short-term outlook for tangible results was grim.
Senate leaders react after John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who returned to the Senate this week after receiving a diagnosis of brain cancer, cast the decisive vote to defeat his party’s “skinny repeal” of Obamacare.
Jonathan Weisman, deputy Washington editor for The Times, explains the voting and amendment process that the bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act must go through next.