House Republicans pulled their bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act on Friday afternoon, just minutes after they were scheduled to vote on it.
(Photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images)
The move came shortly after House Speaker Paul Ryan visited Donald Trump at the White House to tell him that they did not have the votes to pass the American Health Care Act. Without a vote to repeal it, the ACA will remain in place for now.
“We just pulled it,” Donald Trump told a Washington Post reporter shortly after the decision was made. “I don’t blame Paul [Ryan].”
President Trump just called me. Still on phone.
“We just pulled it,” he tells me.— Robert Costa (@costareports) March 24, 2017
“I don’t blame Paul,” Trump tells me
— Robert Costa (@costareports) March 24, 2017
(Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
During the press briefing with reporters Friday, Sean Spicer said the president had personally lobbied 120 lawmakers.
“He left everything on the field,” Spicer said. “The president and his team have committed everything they can to making it happen. There’s no question in my mind that the president has left everything on the field here.”
“I think the Speaker has done everything he can. He’s worked really closely with the president. At the end of the day, you can’t force people to vote.”
When pressed on why the bill would go to a vote if the administration knew they didn’t have enough votes, Spicer said he did not want to reveal the White House’s strategy.
“I understand your question,” Spicer said, “but I’m not going to reveal our strategy.”
(Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
Paul Ryan acknowledged that pulling the bill was a “setback,” but maintained that Republicans “came really close.”
“We are going to go back and figure out what the next steps are,” Ryan said during a press conference after the bill was pulled. “We believed this bill was the best way to go, but we just didn’t get the consensus. I think our members know we did everything we could to get consensus.”
“Obamacare is the law of the land, it’s going to remain the law of the land until it’s replaced.”
“This does make tax reform more difficult,” Ryan conceded. “We are going to proceed with tax reform — this makes it more difficult.”
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