Vice President Mike Pence cast a tiebreaking vote in the Senate as Republicans voted to start the debate on a possible repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act. Washington bureau reporter Alberto Pimienta filed the following report.

After weeks of stunning defeats, Senate Republican leaders barely got the votes they needed to start debating different possibilities to repeal and replace Obamacare.

"People who sent us here expect us to begin this debate, to have the courage to tackle a tough issue. They didn't send us here just to do the easy stuff," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Two Senate Republicans voted no on the motion to proceed to debate, forcing the vice Ppresident to break the impasse.

There was a rousing moment when Senator John McCain entered the Senate floor. McCain came all the way from Arizona after he announced last week he has brain cancer. 

While he voted yes, he expressed his discontent with how the process came about and made a call for bipartisanship. 

"Let’s trust each other, Let’s return to regular order," McCain said. "We’ve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle."

Now, the hard work starts. Senate Republicans have to put together a bill. 

"We're all going to sit together and we're going to try and come up with something that's really spectacular," said President Donald Trump.

There are several options on the table. 

"We have a lot of work to do to come together to honor our promise to repeal Obamacare and to lower premiums, to make health insurance more accessible," said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

"I'd like to see a result," said Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. "I think that we have a crisis that we have to deal with, and we'll have to see how the amendment affect the posture of the House. It could require us to go to conference."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had a message for Senate Republicans.

"Don't be fooled by this ruse," Schumer said. "A vote in favor of the motion to proceed will mean deep cuts to Medicaid, maybe even deeper than in the House bill."

The motion to proceed in the Senate was for a repeal-only bill passed in 2015 in the House. Several amendments will now be made to that, and what a final bill could look like is very much up in the air.