Update, 4pm: House leadership has announced that the vote will be cancelled. No healthcare vote will take place on Thursday. No rescheduling has been announced.
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The White House is pledging to burn up the phones Thursday, in an effort to push the American Health Care Act—the current Republican alternative to Obamacare—through the House of Representatives, but conservative Republicans say they won’t support the measure, no matter how much the White House pushes.
As of 2pm on Thursday, House leadership and President Trump still had not reached a deal with the House Freedom Caucus, the Tea Party-based, staunchly conservative wing of the Party’s House contingent.
Sources close to the negotiations say that the HFC wants assurances from the White House that more changes to Obamacare are coming—not just limited to a repeal of the individual mandate and sunset provisions on minor elements of the 2009 law.
According to those same sources, the President, who has been calling members of the HFC, urging them to support the measure, championed by Majority Leader Rep. Paul Ryan, has offered only a removal of Obamacare’s “Essential Health Benefits,” a short list of things that the law required insurance policies, purchased on state-based exchanges, to cover.
HFC members, including Rep. Justin Amash, contend that that simply makes the Republican alternative worse, making the bill unpalatable to members on both sides of the aisle.
The vote is now pushed to the early evening, with the President promising to burn up the phone lines for hours before House members are expected to register any official position. With campaign promises on the line, no effort will be spared to whip dissenting House members into shape.
Even if the bill does manage to pass, the Senate revealed Thursday that they aren’t thrilled about it, either. Sen. Mike Lee, another conservative stalwart, told colleagues that he believes Senate reconciliation and budgetary rules would allow the Senate GOP to dig in deeper on Obamacare, perhaps even repeal major parts of the law—something the House bill fails to do.
Republicans don’t have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, but some legislative measures—including budget reconciliation—could pass with a simple majority, adding yet another layer to what is already a contentious process.
So far, the vote has not been cancelled, likely because March 23 is the anniversary of Obamacare’s initial passage and Republicans also want it to be the day their reforms take root. But its looking less and less like the GOP will get their ultimate wish.
