In a startling turnabout, Republicans say they are ready to push their prized Health Care Bill through the House and claim a victory for President Donald Trump, six weeks after nearly leaving it for dead and days after support from Grand Old Party (GOP) moderates seemed to crumble anew.
House leaders planned a vote Thursday on the legislation, revamped since collapsing in March to attract most hard line conservatives and some GOP centrists. In a final tweak, leaders were adding a modest pool of money to help people with pre-existing medical conditions afford coverage, a concern that caused a near-fatal rebellion among Republicans in recent days.
“We will pass this Bill,” House Majority leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., predicted late Wednesday. His view was echoed Thursday morning by the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Rep Mark Meadows, R-NC, who said in a television interview that “we’re optimistic that we’ll pass it out of the House today .”
The bitter health care battle dominated the Capitol even as Congress prepared to give final approval to a bipartisan $1 trillion measure financing federal agencies through September.
The House passed that legislation Wednesday 309-118, and Senate passage seemed certain as early as Thursday. That would head off a weekend federal shutdown that both parties preferred to avoid — especially Republicans controlling the White House and Congress.
The health care vote was scheduled after the White House and congressional leaders barraged rank-and-file holdouts with pressure in recent days. A wafer-thin margin seemed likely, thanks to opposition expected from every Democrat and more than a dozen Republicans plus lobbying against the bill by the AARP seniors organisation, doctors, hospitals and patients’ groups.
The Associated Press on Tuesday had counted 21 Republicans saying they would oppose the Bill — one short of the 22 defections that would kill it if all Democrats voted no. Many others were undecided.
House approval would edge Republicans closer to repealing much of President Barack Obama’s health care law, which would represent at least partial redemption of campaign pledges by GOP candidates — including Trump — since its enactment in 2010.
Passage would also send it to an uncertain fate in the Senate, where some Republicans consider the House measure too harsh. Polls have shown Obama’s much-maligned law has actually gained in popularity as the debate over a replacement health care programme has accelerated. “House Republicans are going to tattoo this moral monstrosity to their foreheads, and the American people will hold
them accountable,” said House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.