Now he faces the challenges of actually shepherding legislation into law. And well, we’re feeling those growing pains today. He did everything he possibly could to help people see the opportunity that we have with this bill.
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When pressed about what happens to the federal health law, he added, “We’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future”. “The American people made it very clear that skyrocketing premiums and deductibles and copays and out-of-pocket-costs, they can’t live with that”, he said, acknowledging that there is a “long way to go”.
It’s a rough reminder that life is different for Ryan now than before Trump was elected.
In the first big blow to the Trump administration’s legislative agenda, the Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace Obamacare failed to garner enough support to bring it to a vote on the floor of the House Friday. “All of us, all of us – myself included – we will need time to reflect on this moment and what we could have done to do it better”.
But he said the collapse of the bill might allow Republicans and Democrats to work on a replacement.
Shortly before the House of Representatives was supposed to vote on the controversial health care bill, the speaker of the House was photographed flashing a defeated-looking thumbs-up while leaving the White House.
Ryan (R-Wis.) does not have the tools at his disposal that previous speakers once used to win over recalcitrants before cliff-hanger votes. We couldn’t pass a 2017 budget.
“Our members know that we did everything we could to get consensus”, the speaker said.
“And that’s the vehicle for tax reform”. We want infrastructure – and we want tax reform. “That’s how critical this vote is today”.
A leadership aide said that Trump and Ryan spoke by phone at 3 p.m. and that the president asked the speaker to pull the bill.
Ryan acknowledged that it was a “good question” but that he didn’t have a good answer for her. If many elected officials speak in vague, generically safe terms about faith and values, Ryan dives head first into the minutiae of Catholic teaching, trades letters about budget policy with Cardinal Timothy Dolan of NY and finds himself sparring with theologians.
I’ll let this photo speak for itself.
Trump “has really been fantastic”, he said.
The GOP’s internal divisions were Ryan’s gravest challenge, and one he never came close to resolving.
At that point, a group of conservative hold-outs had yet to swing in favor despite lobbying from Mr. Trump and others, while opposition also came from moderate-leaning and rank-and-file Republicans.
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“From the beginning, TrumpCare was a bad piece of legislation that would have ripped away healthcare from 24 million Americans, imposed an age tax on older healthcare recipients and removed many essential health services from insurance plans”, said Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY).
