i accept that. >> lisa desjardins was reporting the plan is the vote to repeal is the next step. the next step to go to committees, regular order, to work with democrats. are you and others democrats prepared to work with republicans? >> of course. nobody has said the affordable care act is anywhere near perfect. it did add 20 more people to the ranks of the -- 20 more million people to the ranks of the insured. that's good. deductibles and premiums are too high and we pay the highest in the world for prescription drugs, getting ripped off every day by the pharmaceutical industry. but if the republicans want to sit town and say how do we improve the affordable care act, let's go forward and do that. i have very specific ideas on that. >> woodruff: last talk about that. realistically, we know where the republicans, the t democrats are. where's the middle gland. >> as i just mentioned, the cost of prescription drugs is far hiring than in any other country. you may recall that donald trump is a candidate -- as a candidate for president talked about how he was going to take on the ph

in a minute, john yang will be back to talk to lisa desjardins, but first, lisa has the current state of play on capitol hill. >> it's difficult to dispute the >> reporter: with the health care fight unresolved-- and no action on the budget or tax reform-- utah senator mike lee and nine fellow republicans asked today to cancel the august recess. >> at this time it doesn't make sense for us to take the month of august off. >> reporter: majority leader mitch mcconnell partially obliged. >> we will be in session the first two weeks of august. >> reporter: that buys a little more time to tackle a daunting agenda, topped by replacing obamacare. >> we'll be on healthcare next week. we'll be laying out a revised version of the repeal and replace effort, the text of that, on thursday morning. we hope to have a c.b.o. by the >> reporter: muliple republican senators told newshour this is what's in the latest plan: it restores an investment tax and a medicare tax on the wealthy. plans to cut those taxes drew criticism as helping the rich. more subsidies or tax credits for lower-income families.

lisa desjardins with another long day at the capitol. thank you, lisa. we'll talk to montana senator jon tester about the day's drama, right after the news summary. in the day's other news, president trump today kept sawing on the tree limb where he's recently placed his attorney general, jeff sessions. he charged sessions has been "very weak" on investigating hillary clinton, and needs to be "much tougher." as for whether sessions will keep his job, the president said, "time will tell." one of mr. trump's advisors said he probably wants sessions to resign. we'll have a full report, later in the program. the state department denied today that secretary of state rex tillerson is increasingly frustrated in his job. several news outlets reported that the former exxon-mobil chief is chafing at curbs on his independence. the reports said he's told friends that he may not last a year. but spokesperson heather nauert rejected any such talk. >> that is false. we have spoken with the secretary. the secretary has been very clear he intends to stay here at state de

our own lisa desjardins is here to walk us through these shake- ups at the top. ome, lisa. >> thank you. pretty busy set of days here. walk us through the time like of how we got here. >> to do that, west go back to ten days ago. that's when we saw anthony scaramucci be hired as the communications director the same day press secretary sean spicer resigned. five days later july 26 he made the phone call to the "new yorker" reporter in which scaramucci used a series of profane words to openly attack chief of staff priebus. then the next to go july 21, friday, reince priebus resigned, bringing us to today when we're told by the white house anthony scaramucci will no longer be communications director or have any other role in the white house at all. this comes as the sale of scaramucci's company is for sale. it's not clear what will happen with that. >> brangham: was this chief of staff kelly on day one of the job pushing him out? was the president saying enough is enough? >> the word of the white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders -- >> the president felt a

for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> sreenivasan: stay with us.ing up on the newshour: what's stifling race relations in detroit, 50 years after the 1967 riots. lessons on life and cooking, from ina garten. and, a behavioral scientist's advice on talking to your kids about marijuana. but first, the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields, and "new york times" columnist david brooks. all right, so. let's start with healthcare. this week we started with repealing and replace and then it went to repeal now replace later. it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. >> the republican's healthcare plan had three problems. it wasn't healthy, it wasn't caring and there was no plan. it was just that simple. i mean, you can't get people to vote for something when they don't know what it is, there's no public case for it. but beyond that, it just, the conservatives led by rand paul objected that it didn't root out and repeal obamacare. that was correct. and 9 moderates embodied by susan collins we just saw in the previous piece obj

lisa desjardins has more. >> this certainly won't be easy.dly anything in this process has been. >> reporter: the whirlwind process ticked on in the senate today, but republicans found themselves no closer to passing a plan to repeal or replace the affordable care act. two key g.o.p. ideas failed by large margins in the past 24 hours. first, last night, nine republicans voted against the latest senate plan, including senator ted cruz' proposal plan to allow insurance plans with almost no regulations. then today came an idea backed by conservatives like kentucky senator rand paul: a "straight repeal" in two years with no replacement attached. paul said obamacare's regulations mean options are far too limited. >> do you think that the-- that every american should get to choose? that every american gets to choose whether they have insurance or not, and what kind of insurance they have. this is what it's about. it's a freedom of choice. >> reporter: but his straight repeal lost, 45 to 55. seven republican senators rejected the plan. republican le

sarah kliff, lisa desjardins, thank you.the day's other news, north korea launched a second intercontinental ballistic missile that flew higher and farther than its first attempt earlier this month. this missile stayed aloft for 45 minutes, before landing in the sea of japan, near the western japanese island of hokkaido. >> ( translated ): this launch clearly shows that the threat to our security is real and severe. as long as north korea continues these provocations, the u.s., south korea, china and russia and the whole international community must closely cooperate and apply additional pressure. >> woodruff: the pentagon confirms u.s. and south korea staged a joint live fire military exercise in response. the north korean missile was launched at a high angle. the north korean missile was launched at a high angle. some u.s. analysts say the flight path, flattened out, means it could reach the u.s. mainland. washington has slapped more economic sanctions on iran, for launching a rocket that can carry satellites. tehran said

lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> it's time to rise to the occasion. >> reporter: a critical moment for health care and congress: senate majority leader mitch mcconnell unveiled senate republicans' second draft bill, hoping it can win the minimum 50 votes he needs. >> the revised draft improves on the previous version in a number of ways, all while retaining the fundamental goals of providing stability and improving affordability. >> reporter: what has changed? first: it keeps two obamacare taxes on the wealthy. second: it uses that money, in part, to add more than over $100 billion in new spending. $70 billion would go to insurers, to stabilize markets and bring down out-of-pocket costs, and $45 billion would fight the opioid epidemic. on medicaid, the bill still cuts future spending significantly, but does give states more leeway to expand who is eligible for the program. but perhaps the biggest change is the addition of a proposal by texas senator ted cruz. the so-called "cruz amendment" would let insurers mostly opt out of all "affordable care act" requirements, and potentially

for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: stay with us.ing up on the newshour: why so many russians from the country's southern region are joining isis. a view from both sides of the political aisle, on the russian controversy plaguing the trump administration. and from dirt to shirt-- bringing the business of cotton back to the u.s. but first, researchers have been watching for months, waiting for a huge iceberg to break away from an ice shelf in antarctica. that break was confirmed today. and just to give you a sense of the size: the volume of the iceberg is said to be twice as large as lake erie. miles o'brien has been watching all this and digging into the larger questions about the ice shelf. it's part of our weekly reporting about "the leading edge" of science. >> reporter: this fast-growing rift in the antarctica ice just created one of the largest icebergs ever recorded, about the size of delaware, weighing more than 1 trillion tons. the event had been anticipated for months. finally, some time between monday and today, the larsen

let's turn to our own lisa desjardins. isa, has this week off helped or hurt mccall's efforts to get this bill passed. >> it has not helped and that has hurt. some republicans who are not usually in the middle of these situations like john holden of north dakota for example, meeting with constituents but with hospital administrators. those kinds of people and he came away with those meetings having problems with the bill. then yesterday, mitch mcconnel the majority leader spoke to a rotary club in kentucky and he says this quote that got a lot of attention. if my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement then some kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must occur. no action is not an alternative. his office insists he said things like this before but the timing is key. this is a bill that was supposed to be voted on already. john, leadership sources tell me they would still like a new revised bill next week, maybe a vote the following week but that seems unclear now if that will happen. >

lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> desjardins: it's been a long day of debate, setting up a longer night of votes. with republicans stressing the failures of obamacare. >> conditions have changed in tennessee. insurance market is quote very near collapse. that means that up to 350,000 individuals in our state, song writers, workers, farmers, who buy their insurance on individual market are sitting there worrying in july and in august whether if they will have any option to buy insurance in 2018. >> desjardins: and democrats insisting republicans' plans could mean no choices - especially for the poor. >> where there is a serious disagreement, we say that the children of this country who have serious illnesses have the freedom to stay alive even if there parents do not have a lot of money. >> desjardins: the debate, all leading lead up to a whirlwind called vote-a-rama. senators will take up amendment after amendment with little debate and five minute votes. all or nearly all are expected to fail. then, at the end of the legislative marathon, comes the key moment. republicans plan to