--- title: John McCain on Skinny Repeal Vote: We Must Due the Work description: Read Sen. John McCain's statement explaining his dramatic skinny repeal vote Friday, striking down the GOP effort to replace Obamacare. canonical: https://time.com/4877901/john-mccain-skinny-repeal-vote/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-28T12:26:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:46:29.255Z article:section: Politics og:title: John McCain Explains His Dramatic 'Skinny Repeal' Vote og:description: "We must do the hard work our citizens expect of us and deserve.” og:url: https://time.com/4877901/john-mccain-skinny-repeal-vote/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta672e20d61ca69e4/6988d783bc6cfc1ee83e26c8/gettyimages-823746344.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Senators Debate Health Care Bill On Capitol Hill og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John McCain Explains His Dramatic 'Skinny Repeal' Vote twitter:description: "We must do the hard work our citizens expect of us and deserve.” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta672e20d61ca69e4/6988d783bc6cfc1ee83e26c8/gettyimages-823746344.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John McCain on His 'Skinny Repeal' Vote: We Must Do the Work Our Citizens Deserve > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 28, 2017 12:26 PM UTC  Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) leaves the the Senate chamber at the U.S. Capitol after voting on the GOP 'Skinny Repeal' health care bill on July 28, 2017 in Washington, DC. Three Senate Republicans voted no to block a stripped-down, or 'Skinny Repeal,' version of Obamacare reform. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) leaves the the Senate chamber at the U.S. Capitol after voting on the GOP 'Skinny Repeal' health care bill on July 28, 2017 in Washington, DC. Three Senate Republicans voted no to block a stripped-down, or 'Skinny Repeal,' version of Obamacare reform. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images Justin Sullivan—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 28, 2017 12:26 PM UTC The so-called “[skinny repeal](http://time.com/4877723/senate-healthcare-skinny-bill/?xid=homepage)” of Obamacare [went down in flames early Friday](http://time.com/4877796/health-care-senate-john-mccain-susan-collins-lisa-murkowski/?xid=homepage) after three Republicans—Sens. John McCain of Arizona, [Lisa Murkowski](http://time.com/4875702/buddy-carter-snatch-a-knot-in-their-ass-lisa-murkowski/) of Alaska, and [Susan Collins](http://time.com/4444583/susan-collins-donald-trump-vote/) of Maine—joined with all 48 Democrats in voting against the measure. McCain’s vote was arguably the most dramatic, given that he returned to the Senate for votes this week after being diagnosed with brain cancer. In a [statement issued](https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=A952CCCA-66D2-4570-9D57-514561BF3D4D) after the vote, McCain said he decided to vote against the repeal because it would not lower costs, increase competition or improve Americans’ health care. “While the amendment would have repealed some of Obamacare’s most burdensome regulations, it offered no replacement to actually reform our health care system and deliver affordable, quality health care to our citizens,” he said. > [](https://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain/status/890823047522824192) McCain also said he had not been reassured by House Speaker Paul Ryan’s statement that the House would be willing to work with Senators on crafting a repeal they could all agree on after members of the upper chamber made clear they were using the skinny repeal to try to keep the Obamacare repeal alive—but [didn’t want that measure to become law](http://time.com/4877127/health-care-congress-skinny-repeal/?xid=homepage). “The Speaker’s statement that the House would be ‘willing’ to go to conference does not ease my concern that this shell of a bill could be taken up and passed at any time,” McCain continued. Ultimately, McCain said, he did not want Republicans to rush the repeal through the Congress without bipartisan support as he said Democrats had done with the Affordable Care Act. Instead, the Republican Senator said, the Congress should “return to the correct way of legislating” and hold hearings, get bipartisan input, and take the advice of governors across the country. McCain had [expressed similar discomfort](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/25/16027528/john-mccain-speech-health-bill-yes-vote) with the process in a speech from the Senate floor earlier this week, which he delivered after voting for the motion to proceed. “We should not make the mistakes of the past that has led to Obamacare’s collapse,” McCain said Friday. “We must do the hard work our citizens expect of us and deserve.” President Donald Trump expressed his dismay over the repeal measure’s outcome early Friday morning, tweeting that “3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890820505330212864) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4877901/john-mccain-skinny-repeal-vote/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4877901/john-mccain-skinny-repeal-vote/"},"headline":"John McCain on His 'Skinny Repeal' Vote: We Must Do the Work Our Citizens Deserve","datePublished":"2017-07-28T12:26:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:46:29.255Z","description":"Read Sen. 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