Failure on health care law a stinging loss for speaker

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul Ryan guaranteed a win on the Republican plan to dismantle Barack Obama’s health care law. Instead, he suffered a brutal defeat, canceling a vote and admitting “we’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.”

Friday’s painful rebuke is an ominous sign for President Trump’s agenda, from taxes to infrastructure to the budget. Looming in a few weeks is the need to agree on a bill to keep the government open. After the health care debacle, Trump told Republican leaders he’s moving on.

The episode is a danger point for the relationship between Trump and Ryan, who had an awkward pairing during the campaign but worked in tandem on the GOP health measure.

“I like Speaker Ryan,” Trump said. “I think Paul really worked hard.”

Virtually every congressional Republican won election promising to repeal Obamacare. With a Republican in the White House, passage seemed almost guaranteed. And earlier this month, Ryan said flatly, “We’ll have 218 (votes) when this thing comes to the floor, I can guarantee you that.”

Ryan was thrust into the speaker’s chair after the stunning 2015 resignation of John Boehner, R-Ohio, and a failed bid by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield. At the time, Ryan held his dream job — chairman of the powerful, tax-writing Ways and Means Committee — but took the job as the last viable option to lead a fractured House GOP.

While Ryan eased comfortably into the job, he’s not the schmoozer Boehner was, a key skill in delivering like-minded but reluctant lawmakers. He lacked the steel and seasoning of Democratic rival Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, who delivered Obamacare in the first place — and that took months, not weeks.

Ryan entered the health care debate without the experience of having ever managed a situation of such magnitude.

During former President Barack Obama’s tenure, Ryan had always been able to lean on Democrats to pass legislation Obama would sign. On health care, however, Ryan could only count on Republicans, inheriting a fractious group that was schooled in opposing Obama but lacking in the required team spirit to be a functioning, governing party.

Ryan struggled and failed to thread the needle between conservative hardliners in the House Freedom Caucus and moderate lawmakers worried that the GOP measure would harm their constituents — and their political prospects in midterm elections that promise to be bruising for Republicans.

Ryan’s stature appears secure. And even if Trump and his allies were upset with Ryan, there’s no obvious replacement, given the party’s short leadership roster.

“He’s highly respected. He worked very hard on this,” said Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa. “He went in for the right reasons.”