Senate blocks initial proposal to repeal ‘Obamacare’

WASHINGTON - The Senate has blocked a wide-ranging proposal by Republicans to repeal much of former President Barack Obama’s health care law and replace it with a more restrictive plan.

Senators voted 57-43 late Tuesday to reject the plan in the first vote on an amendment to the bill. Those voting “no” included nine defecting Republicans.

The vote underscored problems Republicans will have in winning enough votes to recast Obama’s statute.

The rejected proposal included language by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell erasing the Obama law’s tax penalties on people not buying insurance and cutting Medicaid.

Language by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz would let insurers sell cut-rate policies with skimpy coverage. And there was an additional $100 billion to help states ease costs for people losing Medicaid sought by Midwestern moderates.

Earlier Tuesday, U.S. Capitol Police said they arrested nearly 100 people during protests over the legislation.

Police spokeswoman Eva Malecki said in a statement that officers responded twice to Senate visitor galleries and once to the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building on Tuesday afternoon.

She said 31 demonstrators in the visitor galleries were arrested, charged with disrupting Congress after they refused to stop their “unlawful demonstration activities.”

In the office building, 64 people were arrested and charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding under District of Columbia code.