Third Time May Not Be The Charm For Trumpcare
House Republicans appear not to have enough votes to pass Obamacare repeal.
After failing to pass Trumpcare in March and again last week, multiple news outlets are reporting that Republicans are still short on the number of votes need to pass Obamacare repeal out of the House.
CNN, NBC and The Hill all have whip counts showing that Republicans are within just a few votes on Trumpcare.
According to The Hill’s whip list, 22 Republicans are already declared against the new Republican plan meaning that if one more Republican comes out against the bill would fail again.
Trump also suffered a surprise defection from Republican Congressman Billy Long who serves a very conservative district in Missouri. “I have always stated that one of the few good things about Obamacare is that people with pre-existing conditions would be covered,” Long said in a statement. “The MacArthur amendment strips away any guarantee that pre-existing conditions would be covered and affordable.”
The first attempt failed to get support from the most conservative members of the Republican caucus because it maintained pre-existing conditions protections and other popular Obamacare protections. In order to get more members of the “Freedom Caucus” on board, Republicans have removed the pre-existing conditions protects leading to more defections from the moderate wing of the party.
It remains unclear if there is any path to pass Trumpcare out of the Senate.
