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Trump pulls plug on Obamacare repeal vote as key GOP support falls through

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Marine One carrying President Trump arrives on Nov. 2, 2019, at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, to attend UFC matches at Madison Square Garden.

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By | New York Daily News
UPDATED:

A preexisting condition dealt President Trump’s oft-promised dismantling of Obamacare a stunning and fatal blow: No adequate replacement plan.

For the second time in as many days, a vote on the GOP’s alternative health care plan was scuttled by party infighting before Trump and chastened House Speaker Paul Ryan yanked the bill.

“I will not sugarcoat it: This is a disappointing day for us,” said Ryan after swallowing the bitter pill of defeat. “We will need time to reflect on how we got to this moment.

“We’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.”

The new administration’s inability to pass the bill provided a humiliating political black eye for the White House, Ryan and the Republican Party — along with a major legislative failure for Trump.

The bill tanked “because of two traits that have plagued the Trump presidency since he took office: incompetence and broken promises,” snapped Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Trump, the self-proclaimed greatest dealmaker, failed to galvanize his GOP troops despite seven years of demonizing Republican attacks on Obamacare.

<img loading="" class="lazyload size-article_feature" data-sizes="auto" alt="The vote failed to materialize after the White House could not reach a compromise with key legislators.” title=”The vote failed to materialize after the White House could not reach a compromise with key legislators.” data-src=”/wp-content/uploads/migration/2017/03/25/QM3432LLJGKOXMM27A2UCDRC7U.jpg”>
The vote failed to materialize after the White House could not reach a compromise with key legislators.

The President, who appeared calm despite the public defeat, said he would instead now concentrate on his tax cut proposals — but expressed optimism that Obamacare would disappear under its own financial weight.

The constant health care drumbeat helped the Republicans seize the White House and hold majorities in the House and the Senate in the November elections.

Trump himself vowed to demolish the Affordable Care Act on his first day in the White House — although he seemed to forget that promise while taking questions in the Oval Office.

“I never said repeal and replace it within 64 days,” he said.

Ryan, asked about the Republicans’ health care failure, said he had no answers for disappointed voters who heeded the GOP’s call for change — and found none.

“It’s a really good question,” he said quietly. “I wish I had a better answer. We were a 10-year opposition party, where being against things was easy to do. Now, in three months’ time, we tried to go to a governing party.”

Protesters gather across the Chicago River from Trump Tower to rally against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act Friday, March 24, 2017, in Chicago.
Protesters gather across the Chicago River from Trump Tower to rally against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act Friday, March 24, 2017, in Chicago.

The effort was a failure.

The President said they were about 10 votes short of passing the bill. Trump said he’d done all he could do, and was disappointed and “a little surprised” by the Republicans’ inability to close ranks.

“We learned a lot about loyalty,” he said.

GOP moderates like New Jersey Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen opposed the party’s plan to avoid a likely voter backlash in a state that went for Hillary Clinton.

And Republican hard-liners in the Freedom Caucus felt the party’s proposal didn’t go far enough right to make Obamacare a mere memory.

Rep. Greg Walden, one of the people who helped write the GOP bill, said the plan to replace Obama care was beyond revival.

“We gave it our best shot,” said the Oregon Republican. “That’s it. It’s done. D-O-N-E done. This bill is dead.”

The collapse of the GOP plan came as another defeat for a White House that already suffered two legal losses in its attempt to keep travelers from certain Muslim nations out of the U.S.

The Trump administration is also facing inquiries about the campaign’s reputed ties to Russia and the President’s unfounded claim that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower.

In the midst of the health care meltdown, Trump oddly called reporters at The Washington Post and The New York Times to break the news.

“We just pulled it,” he said in one phone call to the outlets he has derided as “fake news.” He blamed Democrats for the loss for refusing to work with Republicans.

Schumer told CNN, “They never reached out to us. They never talked to us.”

Protests, like this one in Los Angeles, erupted Thursday in opposition to Trump's proposed Obamacare replacement.
Protests, like this one in Los Angeles, erupted Thursday in opposition to Trump’s proposed Obamacare replacement.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi was quick to taunt Trump about the bill’s failure.

“Quite frankly I thought they might have accomplished something in the first few months,” she said. “They have absolutely no record of accomplishment.”

Trump, who had initially demanded a do-or-die vote on Friday after fruitless party negotiations, seemed willing to let the health care status quo play out.

“We have to let Obamacare go its own way for a while,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “It’s imploding and soon it will explode, and it’s not going to be pretty.”

Word of the decision came shortly after a scheduled 3:30 p.m. vote on the proposed Republican answer to the Obama health care plan. Rumors that the GOP couldn’t muster its votes leaked out before noon.

Ryan arrived at the White House and delivered the bad news that House Republicans were short of the needed votes. He later reflected that the GOP proved better at carping than change.

<img loading="" class="lazyload size-article_feature" data-sizes="auto" alt="Congressman Joe Crowley and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi speak at the “Kill The Bill” Rally To Demand The House GOP Vote “No.”” title=”Congressman Joe Crowley and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi speak at the “Kill The Bill” Rally To Demand The House GOP Vote “No.”” data-src=”/wp-content/uploads/migration/2017/03/25/YJF2R4HK76IDPI7M6FUA2BZWXM.jpg”>
Congressman Joe Crowley and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi speak at the “Kill The Bill” Rally To Demand The House GOP Vote “No.”

“Obamacare is the law of the land,” he acknowledged. “This is a setback, no two ways about it.”

Both Trump, via Twitter, and Vice President Pence, in person, appealed in vain to hard-line Republicans for their support of the legislation.

The words fell on deaf ears, much to the delight of Democratic New York Gov. Cuomo.

“This bill appears to be on life support,” said Cuomo. “It should be killed once and for all. This Congress tried to play the people of this nation for a fool — and they were wrong, and they lost.”

The congressional debate kicked off Friday morning, with a vote expected late in the afternoon after Trump cut off negotiations Thursday night and demanded a show of hands.

The GOP, in an unjustified show of optimism, had planned its vote to dump Obamacare for the seventh anniversary of the 2010 adoption of the health care plan.

<img loading="" class="lazyload size-article_feature" data-sizes="auto" alt="House Speaker Paul Ryan’s much-touted vote was a no-go.” title=”House Speaker Paul Ryan’s much-touted vote was a no-go.” data-src=”/wp-content/uploads/migration/2017/03/25/MMZAXRWEEI62BUN6FEYWLZIOAA.jpg”>
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s much-touted vote was a no-go.

Instead, their bill was dead on arrival after weeks of Washington wrangling, arm-twisting and haranguing.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the GOP plan, if passed, would leave 24 million uninsured Americans by 2026.

The CBO projected that 70% of the 20 million people covered by the passage of Obamacare would be stiffed on their health care within the next year.

Trump, during his Oval Office news conference, suggested the Republicans and Democrats could come together and collaborate on the “ultimate” health care plan.

Yet not a single Democrat supported the GOP plan, and Obamacare passed without one Republican vote.

Trump predicted rising premiums and other issues with Obamacare would lead Democrats to the negotiating table.

“Both parties can get together and do great health care,” the President said. “Obamacare was rammed down everybody’s throat. I think bi-partisan would be a great thing.”

With CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN

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