Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) spoke about the need to repeal Obamacare on Tuesday morning in the aftermath of the GOP health care bill's collapse a night earlier.
McConnell condemned Democrats who had celebrated the failure of recent attempts to repeal Obamacare.
"I imagine many Democrats were celebrating last night. I hope they consider what they're celebrating," McConnell said. "The American people are hurting, they need relief, and it's regretful that our Democratic colleagues decided early on that they did not want to engage with us seriously in the process to deliver that relief."
After the Senate was gaveled into session, McConnell took the floor and first scolded those who view people with difficulties caused by Obamacare as just "numbers on a page."
"One of the Senate's very first acts this Congress was to pass the legislative tools necessary to repeal Obamacare. We did so because the American people who had suffered for years under the failures of Obamacare were calling out for relief," McConnell said. "Everyone knows about Obamacare's skyrocketing costs and its plummeting choices."
"Too often, however, this discussion seems to veer into the abstract," McConnell continued. "These are not just numbers on a page, these are the lives of real people. These are the men and women we represent, Americans who are hurting, middle-class families who deserve better than Obamacare's failures."
McConnell then spoke about his new plan for handling health care.
"In the coming days, the Senate will take up and vote on a repeal of Obamacare combined with a stable, two-year transition period as we work toward patient-centered health care," McConnell said. "A majority of the Senate voted to pass the same repeal legislation back in 2015. President Obama vetoed it then. President Trump—President Trump will sign it now."