Freedom Caucus chair: Trump ‘just a few’ votes short on health care bill – Politico

Posted: April 28, 2017 at 2:58 pm

House Freedom Caucus chair Mark Meadows said that there wouldn't be any more changes to the Republican's health care bill. | AP Photo

President Donald Trump is just a few votes shy of having enough votes to pass his Obamacare replacement bill through the House, North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows said on Friday.

Obviously, we would have loved a vote in the first 100 days, the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus said on MSNBCs Morning Joe. I can tell you, I was on the phone until almost 11 oclock last night. We are just a few short. We're going to continue to work today and tomorrow. I fully anticipate that we'll have a vote in the coming days.

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Meadows pushed back on reports the vote, which the administration first tried to push through in the first 100 days of Trumps presidency, had fallen apart, and he said that there wouldnt be many more changes to the bill.

I don't know that there will be necessarily a lot of fundamental changes, he said, adding later that he expected only a few amendments would be added in the Senate before being signed into law.

I can tell you the president and the vice president are all hands on deck, Meadows said. This will get done. Its a matter of weeks, not a matter of months. So Im very optimistic that it will be signed into law.

Since taking office, Trump and his team have tried to move quickly on a health care bill designed to repeal and replace Obamacare, one of Trumps longstanding and most popular campaign promises. The plan faced a stunning setback in March when a scheduled vote for the bill was pulled after the administration failed to garner enough Republican support for the proposal.

The administration again has rushed to push the bill through the House, which would have delivered a major legislative victory for the administration in the first 100 days. But on Thursday night, House Republican leaders delayed a vote on the bill, making it impossible for the bill to pass the House before Saturday's 100-day mark.

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The Freedom Caucus this week endorsed the Trump administration's repeal-and-replace bill, which has not yet attracted enough support from moderate Republicans. Meadows said Friday that the bill is a compromise, and that it does not provide for a full repeal of Obamacare, for which he and some other GOP legislators had pushed.

Its the best of both worlds, Meadows said. Its a compromise. Its not a perfect bill. It doesnt fully repeal it.

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Freedom Caucus chair: Trump 'just a few' votes short on health care bill - Politico

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