If Trump and congressional Republicans aspire to do more than recite campaign slogans, they should rally around policies that will actually drive down the cost of health insurance in America. “It is time to lead”, the Republican Representative from Texas added. If they do, it will be far a more left-leaning, big-government approach to health care than anything the Freedom Caucus opposed in this legislation.
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Members of the conservative Freedom Caucus vowed to vote down the bill over not doing enough immediately. “I think more so now than ever, it’s time for both parties to come together and get to real reforms in this country”. “One lawmaker now leaving the voting bloc all together”.
Ryan specifically advocated that the health care bill was still the best path to defund Planned Parenthood, a key conservative agenda item. To accomplish that, it would have required Republicans of various stripes to bend, to be flexible, to put the good of the party and the president above themselves. Correspondent Cecilia Vega gushed: “The blame game is in full force”.
Their comments came after another day of finger-pointing among Republicans, both subtle and otherwise. “The House Freedom Caucus has made itself irrelevant”. Additionally, all five companies were slammed the day after the election when it seemed Obamacare could be repealed, as Trump promised.
On Sunday, Rep. Ted Poe announced he would leave the conservative group because he was not supporting the Republican health care bill. Well, finger-pointing and recriminations of course. Trump personally lobbied 120 members through personal meetings or phone calls, according to a count provided Friday by his spokesman, Sean Spicer. So where do the President and his party go from here?
“We will get there”, he said Friday.
Harris was elected first in 2010 in Maryland’s 1st district and last November he was solidly behind Trump as his party’s nominee for President.
In that process, a bill, which must have impact on the federal budget, requires just a simple majority of votes in the Senate to become law.
The failure of the Republican House members’ effort keeps the Affordable Care Act intact. The President is trying to shake off defeat and move on.
“I can tell you right now there’s bitterness within our conference, it’s going to take time to heal that”, Collins said.
There will be more fallout.
MICK MULVANEY [WHITE HOUSE BUDGET DIRECTOR]: What happened is that Washington won. “I think that mood exists today”. One can not fault President Trump; he teed the issue up as promised and continually made and encouraged compromises.
But most Freedom Caucus members held out. This was due to the unified opposition from the Freedom Caucus.
House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, an author of the failed legislation, told reporters that Republicans “are turning the page and moving on toward tax reform”. Failing to do so demonstrated clearly that, as the headline said, they are not ready to govern. Why not take the time to get things right?
Schumer, a New York Democrat, suggested that “if he changes, he could have a different presidency”.
However, he said they’ll do it only if Trump is willing to drop attempts to repeal the law and not undermine it. “He enjoys his relationship with Paul Ryan, thinks that Paul Ryan is a great speaker of the House”, Mr. Priebus said on “Fox News Sunday”.
Ms. Pirro insisted Mr. Trump didn’t know she was going to do that, but White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Sunday that Mr. Trump wasn’t sending any signals, and retains full confidence in Mr. Ryan.
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A critical mass of Republicans expressed concerns about the measure and resisted White House efforts to earn their support.
