great health care for the american people. we must repeal and replace obamacare now. thank you. god bless you. god bless the united states of america. thank you very much. thank you. [applause] thank you, everybody, very much. announcer: president trump at the white house talking about health care. here's a tweet from washington post reporter awrong blank.

pretty remarkable to see a president have to publicly plead with his own party just to vote for a motion to pro veed. senator mcconnell said the president will take that vote on tuesday. biel hear from senator mcconnell followed by chuck schumer. >> seven years ago, democrats forced obamacare on the american people. it was supposed to lower health cost but, of course, they skyrocketed. as supposed to prove health options, but they plummeted. at obamacare's launch, millions lost the health plans they liked and were promised they could keep. in the years since americans have continued to lose access to plans and hospitals and doctors they know and they trust. now obamacare teeters on the edge of total collapse, threatening to drag even more of the men and women we represent right down with it.

that shouldn't be an acceptable outcome to any of us. it's certainly not acceptable to me and i made a commitment to the people i represent. i told the people of kentucky i would vote to move beyond the failures of obamacare. the senate did so in 2015, but president obama wielded his veto pen. the senate can do so now and president trump will use his pen to sign such legislation. the first step time that, the first vote we will take soon is on whether or not to begin the debate at all -- whether to have the debate. i believe my mandate from the people of kentucky is to vote yes, and i certainly intend to do so. i know many colleagues feel the same. i know many of us have waited literally years for this moment to finally arrive. and at long last, it has. i would urge every colleague to join me. now, i know many have ideas on how to improve health care.

some of it these ideas have real potential, others, like applying temporary band-aids or quad quadrupling down on obamacare will not move us forward. that doesn't mean senators shouldn't have a chance to offer those ideas. the only way we'll have an opportunity to consider ideas is if senators are allowed to offer and debate them. that means voting to begin the open amendment process. that means voting to kick off a robust debate where senators from all parties can represent the views of their constituents. madam president, it means voting to proceed, and that will occur tomorrow. obamacare has been a disaster from the start. the added streadged the pre -- strategy of the predictability of it all. we warned that americans would lose their plans, we warned that obamacare would inevitably

collapse under its own weight. our concerns were waved away all the time. turns out we were right to be concerned. obamacare has hurt the people we represent. we have seen the statistics, the higher costs, the reduced choices. this shabout more than just numbers on a page. we are talking about the lives of real people, constituents of ours who failed p under this -- failed under this left-wing experiment for years. through calls, meetings and dozens of health care forum in my state thousands have shared their obamacare horror stories. i have seen the pain in their eyes, i heard their struggles to make ends meet, and i have relayed their heartbreaking stories. i know many colleagues have done the same. our constituents deserve better than the pain obamacare has brought them. they deserve a new direction on

health care. so when that vote comes, i'll keep my commitment to vote to move beyond the failures of obamacare. i will vote yes on the motion to proceed. and i would urge all of our colleagu. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: thank you, madam president. now, as soon as tomorrow, we could be voting on a motion to proceed to the republican health care plan. what that plan is, i'm not sure really anybody knows. my friend, the majority whip, when reporters asked him if his own members would know what they would be voting on, said that's a luxury we don't have. we have been on the topic of health care for seven months. republicans have been talking about repealing and replacing the affordable care act for over seven years, and yet here we are one or two days from a vote on the motion to proceed and we don't even know what the republicans plan to vote on.