Even as president moves on, GOP vows health bill revival
WASHINGTON — House Republicans struck an optimistic note Tuesday that they would be able to salvage their failed health care bill, but there was little indication of any concrete shift in the political fundamentals that led to its failure.
Speaker Paul Ryan, RWis., said “some of those who were in the ‘no’ camp expressed a willingness to work on getting to ‘yes’ and to making this work.” He did not, however, commit to a particular path forward.
“I’m not going to put a timeline on it, because this is too important to not get right and to put an artificial timeline on it,” he said.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday acknowledged talks but no imminent plans for reviving the bill. “Have we had some discussions and listened to ideas? Yes,” he said. “Are we actively planning an immediate strategy? Not at this time.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that the “status quo” would remain after Trump and Ryan “went all out” to pass their bill: “I’m sorry that didn’t work, but our Democratic friends now have the law that they wrote in place, and we’ll see how that works out.”
Ryan’s comments came after a closed-door House GOP conference meeting that stretched to nearly two hours. Members ejected staff from the room in the Capitol basement and, according to several members present, proceeded to line up at microphones to deliver calls for party unity.
Ryan told members that “we’re still going to try to find a way to get this done,” said Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C. “We spent years writing this bill — we’re not just going to walk away from it.”
On Monday, Ryan told donors on a private call that the health care push would continue “on two tracks” as the House pursues other priorities of President Donald Trump. He pledged to “lay out the path forward on health care and all the rest of the agenda” at a coming weekend retreat in Florida.
While members of all ideological stripes expressed hopes that the American Health Care Act could be resurrected in the coming weeks, none could say specifically what they would be willing to accept this week that they would not accept last week.
Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, said Tuesday, “We’ve promised people lower premiums — that’s what we’ve got to do.”
Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., another Freedom Caucus member, said he believed the impasse would be short-lived. Brat suggested, however, that his bloc had already made significant concessions — for instance, accepting a federal tax credit system that many hard-liners despise — and that it was up to other holdouts to compromise.
House leaders made a significant change to the bill last week to address Freedom Caucus concerns, allowing states to undo federal “essential health benefits” established under the Affordable Care Act. But that change led to several moderate members pulling their support for the bill.
Trump has openly blamed the Freedom Caucus for the failure of the bill.
Rep. Mark Meadows, RN.C., the Freedom Caucus chairman, told reporters Tuesday that he had talked to at least one leader of the moderate Tuesday Group faction in hopes of reaching a mutual resolution, but he declined to detail what tweaks are under consideration.
He suggested Congress’ upcoming Easter break could be put on hold: “I don’t think we need to go home until . . . we get a solution done.”
The Republican health care push faces major obstacles. Trump signaled Friday he would move on and not expend any further political capital on the effort; Senate Republicans remain deeply wary of the House approach; and recent polls show public opinion running strongly against the now-dormant GOP bill.