US health bill sinks again

US President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda suffered a major blow after a Republican bill aimed at repealing and replacing his predecessor’s legacy healthcare law failed to muster enough support from his own party’s senators.

Two Republican senators declared their opposition to the legislation on Monday, leaving the party short of the majority needed to pass the bill. The party has 52 members in the 100-member chamber, and with all 46 Democrats and two Independents voting against, it needed 50 to clear. It was already down to that number with two senators voting No.

“We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday. “Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!” He urged party leaders in the Senate to separate the two processes of repealing the Affordable Care Act, former President Barrack Obama’s legacy legislation, and replacing it.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell started that process on Tuesday morning by introducing a bill to repeal the law but allowing two years for it to be wound down completely — as a transition period— before the new law takes over. But there is not enough support for this move to pass. The House of Representatives passed a legislation in May repealing Obamacare, as the healthcare law is popularly called. But the Senate was always expected be the tougher challenge.

Scrapping Obamabare was a key element of the Republican Party’s poll plank for past sevenand-a-half years.