The GOP House leadership on Thursday suddenly postponed the critical vote to repeal and replace ObamaCare after failing to muster enough votes to pass the measure.
“The House currently stands in recess. Members are further advised that votes are now expected in the House tomorrow,” the House said in a terse statement shortly after 3:30 p.m.
A White House official later downplayed the postponement — which was a sharp blow to one of President Trump’s key campaign promises.
“Debate will commence tonight as planned and the vote will be in the morning to avoid voting at 3 a.m. We feel this should be done in the light of day, not in the wee hours of the night, and we are confident the bill will pass in the morning,” the official told The Post.
The fate of Trump’s health care reform plan hung in the balance after the postponement.
The GOP had symbolically scheduled the vote on the seventh anniversary of the passage of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said both earlier in the day and later during a meeting with reps from the trucking industry. He ignored reporters’ shouted questions about the postponement.
The development came despite day-long assurances from the White House that the vote would take place and that Trump’s American Health Care Act would pass.
“It’s gonna pass, so that’s it,” administration spokesman Sean Spicer said at his daily press briefing, insisting there was no Plan B.
The vote was postponed shortly after House Speaker Paul Ryan for the second time Thursday canceled a scheduled press briefing.
The move also came after the chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), said there was “no deal” following a meeting with Trump to reach a compromise.
The administration had agreed to strip requirements that insurers provide many basic medical services to patients — a move lauded by conservatives but panned by moderates who believed that constituents who lost benefits would punish them at the polls.
Frenzied last-minute wheeling and dealing was under way on Capitol Hill and at the White House as Trump and Ryan struggled to cobble together the 215 votes needed to pass the bill.
The Associated Press said at least 28 Republicans said they opposed the bill — but the number was in constant flux amid the eleventh-hour lobbying. If 22 Republicans join united Democrats in voting no, the bill will fail.
Ryan was supposed to hold a press conference at 11:30, but pushed it back to 3:30 p.m. and then canceled it, suggesting that differences among members remained unresolved.
Trump, meanwhile, yet again took to Twitter to urge his supporters to call their Congress members to vote for his signature issue.
“You were given many lies with #Obamacare! Go with our plan! Call your Rep & let them know you’re behind #AHCA,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, a new Quinnipiac University poll showed that American voters disapproved, by 56 to 17 percent, of the GOP’s effort to replace the Affordable Care Act.
Democrats disliked the plan by 80 to 3 percent, while Republican support was just 41 to 24 percent.
“Replacing ObamaCare will come with a price for elected representatives who vote to scrap it, say many Americans, who clearly feel their health is in peril under the Republican alternative,” said pollster Tim Malloy.
Obama also issued a statement in support of his own signature legislation.
“If Republicans are serious about lowering costs while expanding coverage to those who need it, and if they’re prepared to work with Democrats and objective evaluators in finding solutions that accomplish those goals — that’s something we all should welcome,” Obama said.
The stakes could hardly be higher for a party that gained monopoly control of Washington’s power centers in part on promises to get rid of ObamaCare and replace it with something better.
Trump had vowed that “insurance for everyone” was his plan’s goal — but the Congressional Budget Office projected that 24 million Americans would lose coverage by 2026 under the current GOP plan.
The Republican legislation would halt Obama’s tax penalties for people who don’t buy coverage and cut the federal-state Medicaid program for low earners, which the Obama statute had expanded.
It would provide tax credits to help people pay medical bills, though generally skimpier than Obama’s statute provides.
It also would allow insurers to charge older Americans more and repeal tax boosts that the law imposed on high-income people and health industry companies.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has slammed the plan, along with an amendment from two conservative upstate lawmakers that would force the state to pay for a share of Medicaid currently paid for by the counties. New York City’s five counties would still be on the hook for the payments.
With AP