The House was supposed to vote on the supposed first stage of RyanCare — which is shaping up to look nothing like the “Repeal and Replace” promised to Americans for years — but now the expected Thursday vote has been delayed as the numbers weren’t there.
A little after 3:30 p.m. the House released a statement about the delay: “The House currently stands in recess. Members are further advised that votes are now expected in the House tomorrow.”
A White House official discussed the current situation in a comment to the New York Post: ““Debate will commence tonight as planned and the vote will be in the morning to avoid voting at 3 a.m. We feel this should be done in the light of day, not in the wee hours of the night, and we are confident the bill will pass in the morning.”
The Post reported:
The move also came after the chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), said there was “no deal” following a meeting with Trump to reach a compromise.
The administration had agreed to strip requirements that insurers provide many basic medical services to patients — a move lauded by conservatives but panned by moderates who believed that constituents who lost benefits would punish them at the polls.
Frenzied last-minute wheeling and dealing was under way on Capitol Hill and at the White House as Trump and Ryan struggled to cobble together the 215 votes needed to pass the bill.
The Associated Press said at least 28 Republicans said they opposed the bill — but the number was in constant flux amid the eleventh-hour lobbying. If 22 Republicans join united Democrats in voting no, the bill will fail […]
Meanwhile, a new Quinnipiac University poll showed that American voters disapproved, by 56 to 17 percent, of the GOP’s effort to replace the Affordable Care Act.
President Trump tweeted in support of the legislation Thursday:
Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump
We are taking action to #RepealANDReplace #Obamacare! Contact your Rep & tell them you support #AHCA. #PassTheBill http://45.wh.gov/Rame8F
This whole situation has been a mess from the beginning, which is quite odd given the fact that Republicans ran on “Repeal and Replace” for the better part of a decade.
Gee, it’s almost as if RINOs never intended on actually following through …
Whatever the situation is, hopefully the GOP gets it together and comes up with something better than ObamaCare lite — no matter how it gets done, even if Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s convoluted claims about a three-step plan are somehow not a big bait and switch. That is, if alternate universes exist …
Hopefully Trump has something up his sleeve and can bring some smart negotiation to all of this — which wouldn’t surprise me — but it’s not looking good right now. Sounds like a smart idea to slow this down and mitigate the damage done by a foolish roll-out of a bill that appears not to deliver, no matter how many steps it takes.
Source: thefederalistpapers.org