WASHINGTON — Republicans confronted a conservative rebellion in their own party Tuesday over their long-promised plans to repeal and replace the health care law, and beseeched President Donald Trump to settle the dispute.
“He’s the leader on this issue right now; he’s the one that’s got to hold us together,” said Rep. Dennis Ross of Florida as he left a meeting during which he said Republican leaders urged the rank-and-file to ” ‘stay strong’ ” on the issue and told them: ” ‘Now is not the time to back down.’ ”
The pep talk from leadership came amid signs of serious trouble for the emerging House GOP health care plan even before legislation is officially released. Conservatives are objecting to new tax credits that would help consumers buy health care, arguing they amount to a costly new entitlement.
Influential House conservatives say there’s no way the approach can pass the House.
The dispute comes a month into Trump’s presidency, and seven years after the Affordable Care Act passed a Democratic-controlled Congress with Barack Obama in the White House. Now the Republicans are in charge of the White House and Congress. Yet, having spent all those intervening years promising to uproot the law and replace it with something better, they find themselves flailing and divided at the moment of truth.
Most Republicans and aides professed to have little insight into what extent Trump would endorse their plan, though several all but begged him to do so.
“What the president can say is that the plan that gets presented to the conference is the one you need to vote ‘yes’ on,” said GOP Rep. Bill Flores of Texas. “That’s how he can be helpful.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin sought to put a positive face on the divisions.
“I feel at the end of the day when we get everything done and right, we’re going to be unified,” he said.
For now, most evidence is to the contrary.
After a recess week filled with raucous town hall meetings, lawmakers’ return to the Capitol this week immediately put deep divisions on display. The two leading conservative groups in the House both announced their opposition to House leadership health care plans based on a leaked draft and reports that the bill would cost more than expected while covering fewer people than the Affordable Care Act.
And three key conservative senators, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas, added their voices in opposition, too, announcing that they will resist “Obamacare Lite” and “accept nothing less than full repeal of Obamacare.”
“I think we have the votes now to tell the leadership that this is what we want to do,” Paul said on a conference call with House conservative leaders Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky summoned Republicans to a meeting this afternoon to hash things out.
