Trump tells House GOP if they fail to pass health care bill, it'll cost them
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.
