President Trump told the House GOP conference that failure to pass their
health care bill would cost many of them their seats, if not Republican control of the House, a person in the room told CBS News.
On
a trip to Capitol Hill Tuesday morning, the president, who was greeted
by the conference with a loud and enthusiastic standing ovation, spent
much of his time with them trying to convince them to vote for the GOP
health care bill. He reminded them that many of them had been elected on
their pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare. He told them, I honestly
think many of you will lose your seats in 2018 if you don’t get this
done.
Moreover, if the House doesn’t pass this bill, he predicted
that Republicans would lose the House in 2018. The House is scheduled
to vote on the Republican bill, named the American Healthcare Act, on
Thursday.
The president said to Republicans, we’re going to be
so embarrassed Thursday if we vote this down. This legislation is one of
the great victories, and we don’t want to blow it, Mr. Trump added.
The president pointed out that the House has in the past easily voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
“I say -- you vote how many times to repeal? How many times, Paul? You kept passing it and passing and passing.”
And
now, he said, you have the chance to pass it, and some of you don’t
want to get it done? We’re gonna get it done, he told the lawmakers.
This majority won’t last long if you blow it, he told them pointedly,
adding, “And I don’t care if the press prints that.”
The president pointed to Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark
Meadows and said he believed Meadows and his caucus would vote with
Republicans on the bill. “Because honestly, a loss is not acceptable,
folks,” Mr. Trump said.
He also reiterated his commitment to
getting Senate Democrats to vote for phase three of the bill. And then,
he told them that he wanted to move on to what he referred to as an
aggressive 200-day agenda.
“The higher the vote the better,” Mr. Trump said, in closing his push for the bill.
On
his way out of the meeting, the president called the health care plan
“tremendous.” He said that “there are going to be adjustments made” to
the bill, “but I think we’ll get the vote on Thursday.”
But it’s
not yet clear that Speaker Paul Ryan has the votes to pass the
Affordable Care Act (ACA) replacement. Late Monday night, GOP leaders
released a list of
proposed changes
to the American Healthcare Act aimed at appealing to both conservatives
and moderates who do not yet support the bill. The changes would
provide help for older people, accelerate the repeal of some of the ACA
tax hikes and stop Medicaid’s growth this year instead of in 2018.
After
the president’s meeting, Ryan was optimistic, though. He told reporters
that the president had come to “close the deal,” and, turning to a
baseball metaphor, said, “The president just came here and knocked the
ball out of the park....He knocked the cover off the ball.”
CBS News’ Catherine Reynolds contributed to this story.
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