GOP health care bill faces its first big test Thursday
Conservatives wary of the bill’s provisions
The House Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare will face its first real test Thursday as it comes before the House Budget Committee, where conservative Republicans who have declared the bill a failure could cast their votes to derail it.
Virginia Rep. Dave Brat, already has committed to voting against the legislation.
“I’m a no ( Thursday) because President Trump wants competition across state lines and the price of insurance to come down,” Brat told USA TODAY Wednesday. The House bill does not include provisions to allow cross- state competition because Republican leaders are trying to use a streamlined process that allows the bill to pass without Democratic votes in the Senate, but must be restricted to budgetary items.
Brat said that if enough conservatives join Democrats and stop the legislation from passing the committee, it’ll work as a negotiating tool.
“We’re not stopping it. We’re just negotiating,” Brat said. “If we vote ‘ no’ you just go back to the other committees and you just say ‘ Hey here you go. Trump’s a negotiator he said go negotiate, so that’s what we’re going to do.’ You just add the elements you want, go back to committees you add it in, a lot of people switch to a ‘ yes’ and then we’ve got a very successful product.”
Brat is a member of the House Free- dom Caucus, a group of a few dozen conservatives who have been critical of the bill because they don’t believe it goes far enough in rolling back the Affordable Care Act.
The Budget Committee is the first committee the bill will pass through with hard- line conservative members who can withhold their votes.
The previous committee votes included Republicans who backed the legislation put out by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R- Wis., and his allies.
“There’s a lot of tension. There’s five or six votes in play,” Brat said. He wouldn’t name any specific lawmakers who were skeptical of the bill.
Rep. John Yarmuth, a Kentucky Democrat and the ranking member of the Budget Committee, said Thursday’s vote will be close.
“Brat said he’s not going to vote for it under any circumstances, ( California Rep. Tom McClintock) is against it, so that’s two and there are certainly a lot of other conservative Republicans on the budget committee,” Yarmuth said.
“My guess is that ( Republicans on the budget committee) will hold on and get it out of the committee, but I think it’ll be a very narrow margin,” Yarmuth said, though he doesn’t believe it will pass the House and Senate in the end.