Senate to vote on ‘Obamacare’ repeal next week

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the Senate will vote early next week on trying to move ahead on a straight-up repeal of Barack Obama’s health care law.

McConnell made the announcement Tuesday night. He says the vote was at the request of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

Three Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia — have turned on McConnell’s repeal of Obamacare.

READ MORE: What’s next for the GOP health care bills?

McConnell also had delayed action because of Sen. John McCain, who is recuperating in Arizona after having a blood clot removed from above his left eye.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says President Donald Trump’s declaration that he and the Republican Party won’t take the blame for the health care system’s problems is “small and petty.”

The New York Democrat made the remarks to The Associated Press after Senate GOP leaders abandoned their effort to rewrite President Barack Obama’s health care law due to Republican opposition. Trump said Republicans won’t own the issue and said he’ll let the statute fail to force Democrats to ask him to fix it.

We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

Schumer says Trump is in charge, but “To hurt millions of people because he’s angry and he didn’t get his way is not being a leader.”

Schumer says Democrats will work with Republicans to fix problems with the law once the GOP abandons its repeal effort.