US Senate Votes to repel obama Health Care

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The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved a motion to open debate on a Republican initiative to overhaul the health care system put in place under former President Barack Obama.

The motion passed 51-50, the tie-breaking vote cast by Vice President Mike Pence.

"We don't have to accept it any longer," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said of the current health care law, the Affordable Care Act, on the Senate floor moments before the procedural vote.

McConnell is leading the push to move away from the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, but over the past month he has been forced to retreat when it became clear there were not enough votes to pass either of two Republican versions of the bill.

President Donald Trump was quick to praise the vote. "As this vote shows, inaction is not an option," he said in a statement released by the White House. "And now the legislative process can move forward."

Despite Tuesday's vote, it remains unclear which version of the McConnell effort will put in play. Republican lawmakers have said a less comprehensive version of the latest Senate measure would have the greatest chance of dismantling Obamacare. If the Senate approves a scaled-down version, a House-Senate conference would be arranged to reconcile differences between the two measures.

In a series of tweets Tuesday morning, Trump said Obamacare was "torturing" Americans, and he applauded ailing Senator John McCain of Arizona for returning to Capitol Hill to cast his vote to permit debate on a health care bill.