GOP House Leaders Are On Edge With Health Vote Gamble

“One is you don’t know what’s in the bill“. While at least a dozen of those Republicans have said since the final plan was announced Thursday evening that they remain “no” votes, several others appear to be wavering. “Our job is to guarantee health care to all people as a right, not a privilege”, he said. Now, House Republican leaders are struggling with the same divisions that plagued them under President Barack Obama. They weren’t very close.

The bill faced opposition both from moderate Republicans, who said their constituents would be harmed because the American Health Care Act wouldn’t cover as many people as Obamacare, and from the House Freedom Caucus, because the bill didn’t bring premiums down enough.

“At this point, we are trying to get another 30 to 40 votes that are now in the “no” category to ‘yes, ‘” Meadows said after meeting with his caucus. And it seems most called his bluff, as the bill has not gotten enough people behind it to put it through.

Still, a senior administration official said the President is likely to pay the Freedom Caucus less heed going forward given its members’ refusal to accept Trump’s and House leaders’ offers to compromise on health care.

Despite the defeat, Trump defended the proposed legislation and said there would have been opportunities to improve it during the legislative process. It would be a mistake, but they are adept at making mistakes.

Trump thanked his party, Ryan and classified himself as a “team player” in the effort.

Brinkley said Trump’s failure stood in stark contrast to the master negotiations conducted by presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, who enjoyed majorities in both houses of Congress and achieved sweeping legislative accomplishments. Right now, the Freedom Caucus has enough votes to block the bill for the Republicans. The bill was withdrawn minutes before the vote was to occur.

The GOP bill would have eliminated the Obama statute’s unpopular fines on people who do not obtain coverage and would also have removed the often-generous subsidies for those who purchase insurance.

Even as they lick their wounds from a failed Affordable Care Act repeal effort, Republican leaders in Washington are looking ahead to the next battle – over taxes.

Just hours after the Republican Congress led by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) failed to give the president a bill that would repeal and replace Obamacare the Democrats made it clear they would be willing to work with President Trump on one condition – drop any thoughts of repealing the law. But Mulvaney’s blunt take-it-or-leave-it approach could be part of Trump’s hardball strategy to get Republican rebels to fall in line. This is why no one is budging, as they understand President Trump and what he is attempting to do.

“Because there were things in his bill that I didn’t particularly like”. Now that one tactic is not working, he has now chose to discuss the ordeal publicly to try and get the American people on his side.

“After seven frightful years of ObamaCare (skyrocketing premiums & deductibles, bad healthcare), this is finally your chance for a great plan!” the president tweeted Friday.

“In addition to the loss of Medicaid coverage for so many people in my Medicaid-dependent state, the denial of essential health benefits in the individual market raise serious coverage and cost issues”.

“If (Democrats) got together with us, and got us a real health care bill, I’d be totally okay with that”.

However, with those amendments, the bill would still leave 24 million more Americans uninsured, according to an analysis from the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Ryan said at the press conference that he told Trump they should drop the bill. He said “I’m really proud of the bill we produced”, but later in his speech called it a “fundamentally flawed” piece of legislation.

Trump now wants to turn to tax reform, an ambitious, complicated plan at the center of his agenda, and he does so wounded by the health care collapse as well as the uncertain legal status of his travel ban and an ongoing federal investigation into possible contacts and coordination between his campaign aides and Russian officials.