Ryan postpones House vote on health law repeal
‘Negotiations are over,’ White House budget director insists of GOP bill
USA TODAY WASHINGTON Republican leaders suffered a major setback Thursday, postponing a planned vote on their bill to repeal and replace “Obamacare” because they could not get enough support from their own party to pass the legislation.
The tumult on Capitol Hill underscored just how difficult it is for Republicans to unite their divided party and deliver on a big campaign promise despite controlling Congress and the White House.
President Donald Trump invited conservative and moderate factions of House Republicans to the White House on Thursday to try to win them over, but Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., called off the Thursday night vote when it was clear he might not have the votes to approve the American Health Care Act. The White House said it was confident the bill would pass Friday morning.
Republicans held a closeddoor meeting Thursday night as efforts to negotiate a deal continued. Senior White House adviser Steve Bannon said as he left the meeting that the administration wants a vote.
Budget director Mick Mulvaney told lawmakers: “Negotiations are over. We’d like to vote tomorrow.”
But even if the bill passes, it is unlikely to be approved by Senate Republicans without major changes. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, RKy., said there will be “a robust amendment process” in that chamber, where both conservative and moderate Republicans have expressed skepticism about the House bill.
“The last few weeks of drama could have been avoided if Speaker Paul Ryan and House leadership had provided a more open process and sought feedback early on from House conservatives, including the members of the Freedom Caucus,” said Adam Brandon, the president of FreedomWorks, a conservative group that has been lobbying for changes in the GOP bill.
The House Freedom Caucus has played a high-profile role in the intraparty debate, with many of its approximately 40 members coming out against the initial bill because they didn’t believe it went far enough in dismantling government regulations put in place by the Affordable Care Act. Trump and Ryan have been try- ing to appease the conservatives without losing moderates worried that their constituents will lose coverage under the bill.
The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that changes made to the bill this week would add billions to its cost without reducing the number of people who would no longer have medical coverage. As in the original version of the GOP bill, an estimated 24 million fewer people would have medical coverage in 2026 compared to the number who would be covered under “Obamacare.” The latest version of the Republican bill would reduce the deficit by about $150billion over 10 years instead of the estimated $337 billion under the initial version.
Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said he is still hopeful a deal can be reached and praised both Trump and Ryan for their efforts to negotiate a compromise. “Do I think it (the postponed vote) gives the president a loss? Absolutely not,” Meadows said. “We are going to get to the finish line because the president has committed to get to the finish line.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday that Trump and House GOP leaders were so eager to pass their bill on Thursday’s seventh anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act that they failed to make sure they had reached agreement within their own party on what the legislation should do.
“Rookie error, Donald Trump, for bringing this up on a day that it is clearly not ready,” Pelosi said. “You do not bring up your bill just to be spiteful on the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.”