Update: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’s deferring consideration of the GOP health care measure.
The Senate leader had planned action on the controversial bill next week. But Sen. John McCain announced Saturday he would be staying in Arizona following surgery for a blood clot. That put the measure in jeopardy in the closely divided Senate.
PHOENIX (AP) — Sen. John McCain’s absence from the Senate next week as he recovers from surgery for a blood clot could complicate the GOP’s prospects for advancing health care legislation already on the brink.
Surgeons in Phoenix removed a blood clot from above McCain’s left eye on Friday. The 80-year-old Senate veteran was advised by doctors to remain in Arizona next week, his office said in a statement Saturday. Pathology reports on the clot were expected in the next several days.
A close vote had already been predicted to pass the GOP health care bill, with all Democrats and independents coming out against it and some Republicans opposed or undecided. With the GOP holding a 52-48 majority, they can afford to lose only two Republicans. Vice President Mike Pence would break a tie for final passage.
Two Republicans, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine, have already said they’ll vote against the measure.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who schedules votes in the Senate, could postpone the procedural vote that had been cast as a showdown over the measure designed to replace President Barack Obama’s health care law, commonly called Obamacare. A spokesman for McConnell did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the impact of McCain’s absence.
McConnell and other GOP leaders have been urging senators to at least vote in favor of opening debate, which would allow senators to offer amendments. In recent days GOP leaders have expressed optimism that they were getting closer to a version that could pass the Senate.
In Phoenix, Mayo Clinic Hospital doctors said McCain underwent a “minimally invasive” procedure to remove the nearly 2-inch (5-centimeter) clot and that the surgery went “very well,” a hospital statement said. McCain was reported to be resting comfortably at his home in Arizona.
McCain is a three-time survivor of melanoma. Records of his medical exams released in 2008 when he was the GOP candidate for president showed that he has had precancerous skin lesions removed and had an early stage squamous cell carcinoma, an easily cured skin cancer, removed.
A few more days to rally the troops to call or contact their Senators, especially if they are Republicant. This is not optional folks, peoples’ lives are literally on the line if this passes.
Trump: Obama is now giving cancer to Republican senators. He will do anything to prevent TrumpCare.
If McCain finds himself able to go directly from a hospital visit to the Capitol in order to vote to take away healthcare from his constituents, I think I will want to scream and break everything in sight.
of course, I wouldn’t put it past him.
sometimes, despite all the evidence, I still can’t believe human beings can be as awful as these congresspeople are. And yet, they are. If McCain proves me wrong, then I’ll be very happy to be wrong.
Chaffetz rode in on his little scooter to strip people of their health care, so I wouldn’t put it past McCain.
I wouldn’t put it past him either. But the irony is painful. Did Chaffetz ride his scooter directly from the hospital? I mean, if they delay a vote on this so that a Senator who is at this very moment receiving quality healthcare can show up to vote to take it away from others… I mean… what could be more cynical and awful than that?
If McCain has any humanity left, he might try thinking about how great it is that he’s getting this wonderful health care, as he’s lying there recovering in his hospital bed, and not turn around and screw us out of it.
But I won’t hold my breath, that’s for sure.