VIDEO: Senate GOP leaders delay health care vote until after July 4 recess

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. walks on to the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 22, 2017, following a meeting with Senate Republicans on a health reform bill. Senate Republicans would cut Medicaid, end penalties for people not buying insurance and erase a raft of tax increases as part of their long-awaited plan to scuttle Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. walks on to the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 22, 2017, following a meeting with Senate Republicans on a health reform bill. Senate Republicans would cut Medicaid, end penalties for people not buying insurance and erase a raft of tax increases as part of their long-awaited plan to scuttle Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leaders are delaying a vote on their prized health care bill until after the July 4 recess, forced to retreat by GOP opposition that left them lacking enough votes to even begin debating the legislation, two sources said Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., delivered the message to GOP senators at a private lunch attended by Vice President Mike Pence and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus. The decision was described by a Republican aide and another informed person who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the closed-door decision.

[INTERACTIVE: Compare House, Senate bills with Affordable Care Act]

All GOP senators were planning to travel to the White House later Tuesday to meet with President Donald Trump, one source said.

McConnell had hoped to push the measure through his chamber by this week's end, before an Independence Day recess that party leaders fear will be used by foes of the legislation to tear away support.

The bill rolling back much of President Barack Obama's 2010 health care law has been one of the party's top priorities for years. At least five GOP senators — conservatives and moderates — had said they would vote against beginning debate.

Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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