Republicans were forced to pull out their proposal for the American Healthcare Act on Friday. Despite their weeks of continuous deliberations as to the nature of the bill, members of the GOP ended up admitting that they had insufficient support even from their side so as to make an Affordable Healthcare Act overhaul.
Afterward, President Trump spoke in the Oval office where he blamed the lack of support from Democrats as to the forced withdrawal of the bill from Congress. “If [Democrats] got together with us, and got us a real healthcare bill, I’d be totally OK with that. The losers are Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, because they own Obamacare. They 100% own it,” he said.
The President refused to criticize Senator Paul Ryan and declined to comment on what policy changes he would prefer to have effected in the health sector. Rather than stick with the situation, Trump appeared to be moving ahead. He spoke about his plans for tax reforms, citing he would proceed to implement changes in this area now that the bill had been withdrawn. “We’re probably going to start going very strongly on big tax cuts. Tax reform that will be next,” he said.
Additionally, the President alluded to the fact that those supporting the bill had undergone a learning process in the wake of its withdrawal. He said, “We all learned a lot. We learned a lot about loyalty.”
Senator Paul Ryan had gone to meet President Trump in person at the White House when it appeared imminent that they would have an insufficient vote count to pass the bill. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had, however, insisted to the press that the vote would go on as expected. He went on to specify a deadline: 3:30 p.m. E.T. During his daily briefing to the media, Spicer made a comment about the efforts the government had made concerning the American Healthcare Act. He said, “Has the team put everything out there, have we left everything on the field? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, this isn’t a dictatorship and we’ve got to expect members to ultimately vote how they will according to what they think.”
Spicer’s deadline soon passed without a vote. Afterward, President Trump’s message as to the bill’s withdrawal was passed onto Congress. Minutes later, the bill was officially pulled out by House Republicans.
During a press conference following the failure of the bill, Senator Paul Ryan expressed his disappointment saying, “Moving from an opposition party to a governing party comes with growing pains and, well, we’re feeling those growing pains today. I will not sugarcoat this: this is a disappointing day for us.” Additionally, he went on to say that “doing big things is hard.”
When prompted about the possibility of drafting another healthcare bill or reforms within the country’s health sector, Senator Ryan said, “We are going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.”
The Senator also highlighted that the government would consequently move on with implementing its other policies. “Now we’re going on to move on with the rest of our agenda because we have big, ambitious plans to improve people’s lives in this country,” he said.
The leader of House Minority Democrats Nancy Pelosi, on the other hand, said that the retraction of the bill was “a victory for the American people.”
