The Senate Just Voted To Discuss Repealing Obamacare And Twitter Is Scared
On Tuesday, July 25, Senate Republicans voted to open debate on health care reform. This is part of the GOP's long effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). It's not entirely clear what happens next, which is a large part of the reason why this move was met with backlash.
Even with a majority in Congress, Republicans have struggled in their fight to undo Obamacare. This has primarily been linked to the fact their plans for replacement have been extremely unpopular.
Obamacare remains the law of the land for now, but this was a big step forward for Republicans in their persistent effort to dismantle former President Barack Obama's greatest legislative achievement.
This is a complicated, confusing topic. But here are tweets that breakdown what happened, and what potentially happens next.
Senate Republicans essentially just voted on a bill without knowing what's in it.
Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote.
There are three versions of health care Senate Republicans could potentially vote for, but, from what we know about them right now, any one of them would leave millions without health insurance.
What happens next remains to be seen (because there's no specific plan in place), but President Donald Trump said it's going to be "spectacular."
Protesters shouted "Kill the bill, don't kill us," in the Senate chamber during the vote.
After the vote, Senator John McCain gave a speech that completely contradicted how he voted (he voted "yes").
McCain was recently diagnosed with brain cancer and hasn't been well lately, but went out of his way to come to the Senate to vote.
