The Republican health care plan is on life support.
House Speaker Paul Ryan headed to the White House Friday afternoon to brief President Trump on the bill’s status amid key GOP defections Friday afternoon.
A defeat of their plan, the American Health Care Act, would be devastating to the GOP. The party has vowed repeatedly over the past eight years that they would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. An inability to do that, with control of the House, Senate and White House, would hurt their image as a party that can govern.
The risks are high for President Trump as well. He has hyped a brand of someone able to strike the best deals. Being unable to get this through, after giving an ultimatum to congressional Republicans Thursday, will raise questions about just how good a deal-maker he is.
It also endangers Trump’s and the GOP’s agenda and casts a cloud over the legislative path forward after an election waged almost entirely as the antithesis to a progressive agenda enacted by former President Obama, Trump’s predecessor.
The vote is still scheduled for late Friday afternoon or early evening, but indications are that while Republican leadership is close, they still don’t quite have the votes. And if the votes aren’t there, even more Republicans could begin to defect, not wanting to have a tough vote hanging over them if the bill is doomed anyway.
Vice President Pence, who canceled a trip out of Washington, is hoping to make one last sale in a meeting with the roughly 40-member, hard-line conservative Freedom Caucus, which so far has refused to budge from their ideological objections against the bill.
In an attempt to win them over, an amendment was added to the bill late Wednesday night, cutting “essential health benefits,” or benefit requirements that insurance companies must cover. The Freedom Caucus wants to see premiums come down and believe cutting benefits is the way to do that.
But that has had an effect on moderates. For example, Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., who represents a swing district in the D.C. suburbs, said she wouldn’t back the bill, joining more moderate Republicans who are top 2018 Democratic targets who don’t want to take a tough vote that might come back to bite them during the midterms.
Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, another centrist Republican, announced he wouldn’t support the bill either, saying in a statement that the GOP’s replacement plan was no better than Obamacare.
And House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., also broke ranks from GOP leadership on Friday, announcing that he was a no vote. His reasoning: the current bill adds too many new costs and barriers, along with taking away benefits requirements.
Conservative House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, tweeted Friday afternoon that the bill may be pulled altogether.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer maintained at his daily briefing that a vote was still slated for this afternoon. He said Trump had “left everything on the field” to try and woo Republican members, having contacted over 120 members. But his tone and tense were notable.
Spicer wouldn’t concede that the bill might fail, but did admit that “at the end of the day, you can’t force somebody to do something.”
He added, “At the end of the day, this isn’t a dictatorship.”
9(MDEwMjQ0ODM1MDEzNDk4MTEzNjU3NTRhYg004))
