News Internal GOP battle brewing over healthcare bill
The Republican health-care overhaul spearheaded by House Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.) and backed by President Donald Trump hung in the balance Wednesday, as the White House signaled at the 11th hour a willingness to rework the measure to mollify conservatives.
After insisting for weeks that the changes sought by hard-right members would render the bill unable to pass the Senate, White House officials and GOP House leaders appeared to shift their thinking – and opponents agreed to keep working on a deal with the goal of holding a floor vote in the House by tonight.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said he had taken personal calls Wednesday from Trump seeking a resolution, though he said no formal offer had been extended by the White House.
“We are working very diligently tonight to try and get there,” Meadows said Wednesday.
“The president has been profoundly engaged,” said Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz. “I think things are going in a very good direction right now.”
More than two dozen House conservatives remained opposed or leaning against the effort to revise the Affordable Care Act, even as a handful of moderates decried the current proposal as harming the elderly and poor. Both the president and vice president made personal appeals throughout the day to secure the votes needed to pass the House.
Pence huddled with members of the Freedom Caucus in his Eisenhower Executive Office Building office early in the day, while Trump met with 18 House Republicans at the White House, but these efforts appeared to produce just one definitive aye vote from the conservative camp: Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.
GOP leaders can afford only 22 defections, given that one Democrat is expected to be absent today.
A Freedom Caucus spokeswoman said that “more than 25” members oppose the bill.
The day’s events laid bare party leaders’ struggle to muster enough votes for one of their defining goals: to roll back the 2010 healthcare law that helped galvanize conservatives in the years since to wrest control of both the legislative and executive branches from Democrats.
If Republicans fail this initial test of their ability to govern, Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans may face a harder time advancing highpriority initiatives on infrastructure, tax reform and immigration.
They might also find themselves navigating strained relationships among themselves.
For much of Wednesday, the Freedom Caucus’s message, spokeswoman Alyssa Farah tweeted, was: “start over.”
At the same time, four more Re- publican moderates – Reps. Charlie Dent (Pa.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), Daniel Donovan (N.Y.) and David Young (Iowa) – announced their opposition Wednesday, increasing pressure on leaders to win over the conservatives.
Ryan summoned more than a dozen members of the moderate Tuesday Group to his office late Wednesday in an apparent bid to curb further defections. One participant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private meeting, said Ryan and other House leaders described the potential deal with the Freedom Caucus, which would strip essential health benefits but leave other ACA mandates, such as those dealing with preexisting conditions and coverage of adult dependents, in place.
“People got to say their piece and react to the proposal. It’s safe to say people had concerns about stripping out essential health benefits, especially at this late hour,” the Tuesday Group member said.
“I think they’re short [of votes], and I think they’re considerably short... I’m not sure where all this goes tomorrow.”
Conservatives are seeking to eliminate more of the ACA’s insurance mandates, known as “essential benefits,” which require plans to cover specific medical benefits, such as mental health care, prescription drugs and preventive care. That, conservatives argue, is the only reliable way to force down premiums.
Ryan warned in an interview Wednesday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that fulfilling those GOP demands would violate Senate budget rules and leave the bill vulnerable to a blockade by Democrats.