Health bill is Trump’s big test
In a closed-door meeting on Capital Hill, President Donald Trump deployed all his skills as a deal-maker to rally fellow Republicans behind a legislation to repeal and replace a healthcare law bearing his predecessor’s name.
He used a mix of charm, which impressed some of those in the room and threats. “I’m gonna come after you, but I know I won’t have to, because I know you’ll vote yes,” Trump is reported to have told a Republican lawmaker heading a group within the party most stridently opposed to the replacement legislation.
The threat was a joke, White House press secretary Sean Spicer clarified, saying the president was just having some fun with an “early, longtime supporter.”
But he did add that those who don’t back the bill will “probably pay a price at home”.
At stake in the passage of the bill is, more than anything else, Trump’s reputation as a leader, a deal-maker, and ability to repeal and replace Obamacare, as the healthcare law is called, which has agitated Republicans for years.
The president has called Obamacare “horrible” and a “disaster” and that it has been “imploding” and committed his backing and support to a legislation unveiled recently by House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, called the American Health Care Act.
Republicans don’t have the numbers now. The legislation needs the support of 216, more than half the strength of the current House (which is down to 431, with four joining Trump’s cabinet). With no Democrats backing the bill, it will fail if only 21 Republicans vote against.
‘ISLAMIC STATE BEHIND ELECTRONICS BAN’
While no specific threat was cited for the air-travel restrictions announced by the US and UK over the past two days, US media reports suggested they were triggered by intelligence about Islamic State developing bombs concealed in electronic devices.
Its bomb-makers have reportedly developed a capability to conceal explosives in the battery compartments of electronic devices such as laptop, tablets, travel printers, games and some medial equipment, that stand barred from cabin baggage.