The long-awaited House showdown a day away, President Donald Trump and Republican leaders cajoled recalcitrant GOP lawmakers Wednesday to back their health care overhaul. Conservatives insisted they had the votes to torpedo the measure, leaving the party’s top legislative priority dangling perilously.
Trump met at the White House with 18 lawmakers, a mix of supporters and opponents, while Vice President Mike Pence saw around two dozen. The sessions came as leaders rummaged for votes on a roll call they can ill afford to lose without wounding their clout for the rest of the GOP agenda.
Asked by reporters if he’d keep pushing a health overhaul if the House rejects the measure, Trump said, “We’ll see what happens.”
For now, the White House and House leaders showed no sign of delaying their legislation demolishing former President Barack Obama’s health care law, a GOP pledge since the statute’s 2010 enactment.
“There is no plan B. There is plan A and plan A, we’re going to get this done,” said White House spokesman Sean Spicer.
But, underscoring the tricky pathway to victory, participants in the Pence meeting said there were no visible signs of weakened opposition and described one tense moment.
Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, said White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told them: “We’ve got to do this. I know you don’t like it, but you have to vote for this.”
Weber said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, bristled.
“When somebody tells me I have to do something, odds are really good that I will do exactly the opposite,” Barton said, according to Weber.
Many conservatives remained dug in against the measure, insisting it must repeal the law’s requirements that insurers pay for specified services like maternity care and cover all comers, including the sickest. They say those provisions must die because they drive up premiums.
“There’s not enough votes to pass it tomorrow,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., leader of the House Freedom Caucus, the hard-line group that has spearheaded opposition to the GOP bill. Most of the group’s roughly three dozen members seemed opposed to the legislation, more than enough to defeat it.
Another member of that caucus, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., was among the lawmakers who met with Pence. He said White House officials at that 90-minute meeting suggested they were considering amending the bill when – and if – it reaches the Senate to erase those regulations, but he remained skeptical.
“We’re being asked to sign a blank check,” said Perry, who has opposed the bill. “In the past, that hasn’t worked out so well.”