The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trump: GOP will suffer if health overhaul fails
President makes pitch to reluctant House conservatives.
President Donald WASHINGTON - Trump stormed Capitol Hill on Tuesday to sell the House Republican leadership’s plan to overhaul the health-care system, warning his party that not passing the legislation would yield a political crisis and sweeping electoral defeats.
The president addressed a closed-door meeting of House Republicans days before the measure is expected to come to a vote on the House floor.
Trump used both charm and admonishment as he made his case, reassuring skittish members
that they would gain seats in Congress if the bill passed and singling out Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., the chairman of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, in front of colleagues.
“I’m gonna come after you, but I know I won’t have to, because I know you’ll vote ‘yes,’” Trump said, according to several Republican lawmakers who attended the meeting. “Honestly, a loss is not acceptable, folks.”
For Trump, who talked up the House bill the previous evening at a raucous rally in Kentucky, the presentation was the latest example of his mounting urgency to secure a major legislative victory in the early months of his presidency and repeal the signature law of President Barack Obama.
“That’s just the demeanor of this president. He wants to get this bill done,” said Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., a Trump ally. “I don’t hear that as a threat. It’s a statement of reality.”
“Read ‘The Art of the Deal,’” Perdue said, referring to Trump’s book, when asked whether Trump thinks keeping members on edge is effective.
But Trump’s ability to translate his negotiation skills from the business world to the congressional realm - and to rouse his party behind him - remained unclear by late Tuesday as Meadows and other Republicans stayed firmly on the fence.
After the meeting, Meadows told reporters that the president had not closed the sale, describing the call-out as merely good-natured and insisting that conservative holdouts will continue to press for a tougher package.
“I’m still a ‘no,’ “Meadows said. “I’ve had no indication that any of my Freedom Caucus colleagues have switched their votes.” The group has about 30 members.
Meadows said he didn’t take Trump’s remarks that he would “come after” him too seriously: “I didn’t take anything he said as threatening anybody’s political future.”
Said Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., a supporter of the bill: “Oh, he was kidding around. I think.”
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said later in the day: “Mark Meadows is a long-time, early-supporter of the president. He had some fun at his expense this morning during the conference meeting.”
Asked whether Trump believed that Republicans who opposed the bill would be damaged at the ballot box, Spicer answered: “I think they’ll probably pay a price at home.”
Spicer explained that statement was not a threat but “a political reality.”
Trump, who when angered has turned on Republicans on numerous occasions in the past, is putting his considerable political weight behind a proposal crafted by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., that would represent a powerful if symbolic achievement for the president and the speaker if the House approves it. Even if it passed, the legislation would face an uphill battle in the Senate.
No Democrats are expected to support the legislation, meaning Republican leaders can afford to lose no more than 21 Republicans on the House floor. The House Rules Committee is slated to meet at 10 a.m.
“We made a promise and now it is the time to keep that promise,” Ryan said. “If we keep that promise, the people will reward us. If we don’t keep our promise, it will be very hard to manage this.”
Ryan minimized the chance that Freedom Caucus members could band together to bring down the measure and said that conservatives should be pleased that many of their demands would likely be in the legislation - such as limiting the expansion of Medicaid and including work requirements for those who receive coverage from the program for the poorest Americans.
Ryan said conservatives will eventually realize that pushing for more extensive changes, such as ending payments to states that accepted the Medicaid expansion, could jeopardize the legislation’s chances in the Senate.
“If you get 85 percent of what you want, that’s pretty darn good,” he said. “We don’t want to put something in this bill that the Senate is telling us is fatal.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took a cautiously optimistic tone Tuesday. He confidently promised that the Senate would forge ahead with plans for votes on the health care legislation but left the immediate success of the venture in the hands of House leaders.
“If the House passes something, I will bring it up,” McConnell said. “We’ll try to move it across the floor next week.”
McConnell also cautiously avoided confronting mounting criticism of the bill from within Senate GOP ranks. He instead dismissed the concerns as a natural part of the legislative process and assured reporters that he would consider the legislation quickly to clear the way for a vote on Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.
“We will reach a conclusion on health care next week,” McConnell said. “Because we’re going to judge Gorsuch the week after that.”
On Tuesday afternoon, several Republican senators - including those from states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act - expressed reservations about the House bill and said it would need to change significantly to win their support.