Today, the Senate is voting on an extremely important issue that has been debated about for years. Tuesday, July 25th is the set date for the voting to take place. President Trump has always protested against the Obamacare system, or the Affordable Care Act. He claims that it is corrupt and that it should be repealed, and replaced with a more effective system. Even though there has been struggle to create a new healthcare bill that changes the laws for the better, Trump and other Republicans are still urging Senators to pass the bill to debate the issue. Trump and many others believe that something should be done as soon as possible to replace Obamacare, while others think that we should wait it out or leave the system alone. In order for the debate to move forward, the majority of the Senators need to agree that the bill should be addressed. Some Senators have already gave their opinions on the bill, while other remain silent until today. The video below explains in detail how many Senators will need to vote yes for the bill to be debated, and what will happen if it is passed. It also shows some of the ways President Trump is urging people to support the bill in the last few, crucial days.
As it said in the video, there are several senators who remain undecided in this debate: Sen. Rob Portman, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Sen. Dean Heller, Sen. Mike Lee, Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Jerry Moran, and Sen. Ron Johnson. These eight people could decide if the bill gets passed or fails. For further reading about these eight senators and other important people who plays roles in the voting today, there are two links below.
Now that everyone has expressed their opinions and seen what will happen if either the bill is passed or rejected, it is time for the Senators to vote. In the last half hour before the vote, a couple Senators have flipped or announced their votes last minute. Sen. Dean Heller has switched to yes, along with Sen. Capito and Sen. Portman. All three previously were undecided. Also, Sen. Rand Paul says he has flipped his vote from no to yes, and he now wants to move the motion forward. After these last minute switches, the Senate proceeds to vote. The results of the vote are stated in the clip below. Also, you can see the first part of Sen. McCain's speech afterwards.
The Senate majority voted yes on debating the Healthcare bill. It was originally a 50-50 tie but Vice President Pence broke the tie with his vote to carry the motion, making it 51-50. The Senate and House will now debate the healthcare bill in the near future. Here are a few articles that go into detail about how the voting progressed.
After seeing the Senate vote, everyone has their own opinion on the choices that were made. Here are a couple of important questions:
- Do you think the Senate made the right decision to proceed to debate the healthcare bill?
- Why do you think so many Senators flipped or changed their opinions/votes, just minutes before the actual voting process?
- Do you think it is fair that in the event of a tie, the Vice President's vote is essentially the deciding factor of the situation?
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