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DONALD TRUMP WARNED Republicans that he is done negotiating and wants a vote today on dismantling Obamacare, setting up a high-stakes showdown with members of the president’s own party over his embattled health care plan.
House leaders were forced to postpone a vote last night on the measure amid a revolt by mainly conservative Republicans, who were complicating the first major legislative test for the new president by signalling it would not pass without key changes.
Trump himself set the stage, dispatching an aide to a closed-door meeting of Republican lawmakers to demand a vote today.
“The message is tomorrow it’s up, it’s down – we expect it to be up – but it’s done tomorrow,” White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told the lawmakers, according to congressman Chris Collins.
Mulvaney then delivered Trump’s extraordinary ultimatum.
“If it doesn’t pass, we’re moving beyond health care,” Mulvaney said, paraphrased by Collins.
We would be moving on to other parts of his agenda.
The idea that Trump – who campaigned relentlessly on a pledge to bury Barack Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment – would wash his hands of the fight and let Obamacare stand is a startling departure from the party playbook.
But Mulvaney’s blunt take-it-or-leave-it approach could be part of Trump’s hardball strategy to get Republican rebels to fall in line.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, a champion of the legislation dubbed the American Health Care Act, put on a brave face despite the bill’s hanging by a thread.
“We have been promising the American people we will repeal and replace this broken law because it’s collapsing and failing families, and tomorrow we’re proceeding,” he told reporters after the conference meeting.
A procedural vote on the bill is set for approximately 10am (2pm Irish time) today, followed by a full floor vote in the afternoon.
The president and his lieutenants had repeatedly voiced optimism about the bill’s prospects, saying they had made progress convincing doubters to join Trump’s camp.
But the votes weren’t there.
“I am still a no at this time. I am desperately trying to get to yes,” said Mark Meadows, chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, whose members have demanded changes to the plan before giving their blessing.
Although Meadows sought to portray optimism about the process, he revealed the width of the gap between Trump and the plan’s opponents.
Mark Meadows, R-N.C., the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, speaks with the media after a Freedom Caucus meeting. Alex Brandon
Alex Brandon
“At this point, we are trying to get another 30 to 40 votes that are currently in the ‘no’ category to ‘yes,’” Meadows said after meeting with his caucus.
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That did not happen, and Ryan pulled the bill off the floor.
‘Time to vote’
Republicans have spent years railing against the Affordable Care Act, branding it a result of a Democratic push for socialised medicine.
With Democrats opposed to Trump’s plan and his own party’s right flank in revolt over legislation they say falls short, the White House and Republican leaders looked to make the bill palatable to enough conservatives without angering moderates.
Trump spent much of the day lobbying both conservative lawmakers and moderates in a delicate arm-twisting effort.
“Tomorrow it’s time to vote,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told Fox News.
“At the end of the day, this is the only train leaving the station that’s going to be repealing Obamacare and giving us an alternative to replace it,” he said.
Many conservatives say their party’s plan is still too costly for the government.
They want to repeal “essential health benefits” that all insurance policies must cover under Obamacare – including maternity care, emergency room visits and preventive care like screenings and vaccines – arguing they have driven up costs.
Republican leaders conceded to that demand, introducing an amendment to the bill that repeals those benefit requirements.
Limiting defections
The House Freedom Caucus – some 30 lawmakers who are heirs-apparent to the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement – have dubbed the new bill “Obamacare Lite”, saying it will only reduce, not eliminate, health coverage subsidies by replacing them with refundable tax credits.
resident Donald Trump jokes as he sits in the drivers seat of an 18-wheeler as he meets with truckers and CEOs regarding healthcare. Andrew Harnik
Andrew Harnik
At the spectrum’s other end some Republican moderates are worried their constituents would no longer be able to afford health insurance under the new plan.
The amendment also provides a sweetener for moderates: it keeps an Obamacare tax on high-income earners for an additional six years to generate some $15 billion to finance patient benefits.
A nonpartisan congressional budget estimate says the Republican plan would force 14 million Americans to lose their coverage from next year.
An update of that estimate yesterday, accounting for recent changes aimed at lowering premium costs for the elderly, said the plan would reduce the deficit by less than the previous version, while not improving coverage numbers.
The Democratic minority is prepared to vote against the bill as a bloc, so Republican leaders need to limit defections to fewer than 22 of their party’s 237 representatives among the House’s 430 current members.
Are they sure it’s not 3034? After all, we have to allow for objections, cost over runs, missed deadlines, disputes and legal cases. 2034 seems a bit optimistic to me.
Forget the MetroLink, build that white water rafting facility instead. Much better for Dublin City – who needs a direct link to the airport when you can just walk anyway? Better for the environment.
Ah yes, Irish government projects. Expect this to be pushed further back, and its cost to be octupled by the date it was set to have been completed originally. Also expect the electorate to do nothing about it but moan online because they’re too afraid to vote for an alternative government.
@Barry Teehan: Overhead tracks? Well no, there’s buildings, roads and, well, a city in the way. This is arguably more complicated as this has lots of stations. Politicians just need to grow a pair, ignore the naysayers and NIMBYs and get it done.
@caelan: wouldn’t have the capacity. Also, it’s about much more than the airport – it’s about linking swords to the city centre, via the airport, santry, ballymun, dcu & glasnevin.
Think about how busy the existing luas lines are and neither of them have trip generators as big as swords of the airport.
Also, even if it did have the capacity, we should be future proofing
@caelan: Really think a long distance Luas line is a half measure. The Luas is fine for short trips crosslinking various parts of the city, but it is too slow for linking bigger outskirt towns like Swords to the city and also takes up valuable road space that could be used for bike and bus lanes as well as cars. I’ve been over in Tallaght at matches and when I looked it up it was quicker to get into town by Dublin bus than Luas. Hardly what we need to link the airport to town.
Living opposite the M 50
I cannot that no one ever thought of running a rail/ Luas type of system along side the motorway,with stations at where the train line runs underneath it at Clondalkin onto then Finglas then Ballymun with link to Airport from there.
The planner’s in this country again missed out on a chance to build a modern and much needed multi link system
The stops I mentioned could have lins to mainline rail into the city as well as serving the outskirts of this expanding City.
Putting Ryan in as transport minister was always going to be a disaster. You think being leader of the Green Party he would be all for a metro. Not our Eamon, he would rather see the roads clogged with fumes from the buses and cars.
We could do with clarity on a huge range of government issues, generally we get spin and outright lies, that’s how you keep the corruption under wraps.
Metrolink is obsolete! It’s not good value for money! We can do better with developments and advancements in transport technology and the alternative could serve the whole city not just one single route/line http://www.thedublinloop.ie Don’t be surprised later this year when BusCONnects gets refused planning permission from An Bord Pleanála because of the poor quality of cycling infrastructure! We need to put the majority of all traffic underground!
They won’t have put down a single track in 2034 either. Nothing to do with COVID, or funds, or even local objections… Irish politicians are simply incapable of building public transport, instead choosing to let Irish Rail play with the legacy British Victorian railway they inherited. This is just the latest rotten batch who aren’t up to it. They proudly continue the legacy of wasted hundreds of millions of our money on consultants, PDFs, delay tactics, and waffle. Many of us knew that when Metro North was scrapped (by LEO VARADKAR) and came back to life as Metrolink, they weren’t serious about building it. Governments that are serious about infrastructure don’t scrap plans and keep re-designing it until the end of time. Time-wasters dither and plan. Doers, do.
It is beyond absurd that in a few weeks time, when the peasants are treated to the reveal of the castrated, shredded National Development Plan, GREEN PARTY MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT EAMON MICHAEL RYAN will be presenting a climate strategy whose first move is to cancel all public transit investment for the next 20 years and divvy out the cash to some motorways. Carbon tax, congestion tax, mega high fuel taxes for the privilege of sitting in traffic.
And the plans being scrapped aren’t even ambitious. We’re talking about a single, simple basic metro line and the electrification of some existing infrastructure. Basic infrastructure that should have been built in the 70′s when it was first announced. DART+ doesn’t come with the underground tunnel, nor does it even provide any stations. And even that’s beyond our capabilities to consider doing before 2034++.
@Search Eagle: surely the eu should just step in and run this country and put in the proper infrastructure across the country that it deserves.we have never been capable of governing ourselves here.
Maybe they are basing it off Metro 2033 and Metro 2034, or playing the games to get an idea of what it will look like within a year of allowing the scobes and young lads in Canada Goose bomber jackets onto it.
Why am I not surprised? Could it be the fact we have inept, self-serving politicians? Or… is it the bureaucratic process that is at fault? Maybe it is because no-one in charge has the ability to coordinate and plan?
i think Ireland missed a massive opportunity in the past year and a half to push ahead with so much of the admin and planning works for projects like Metro – i know we werent near being able to get actual construction yet – but all the bodies who were ‘working from home on full pay could easily have progressed with the planning of major projects like this – same with some essential works – i despair driving around Dublin these days looking the the number of cones and roadworks – the Germans designated roadworks and maintenance works essential and brought forward planned works to maximise the opportunity of having low or no traffic thru busy cities like Berlin – we of course didn’t bother use our brains at all and are now watching all city centre grind to a halt as backlog of construction and maintenance works get done …we are so annoying in ireland sometimes
There are not enough spurs off both green and red. This would be a start and would increase capacity. There is no reason for every tram to travel cross city. Why is the Shelbourne hotel stop not ever used for example
How government plans, organises and tenders large projects needs a complete overhaul. There’s so much red tape. Some of it makes sense to avoid corruption. But the delays mean that it takes so long that the plans change drastically between governments. Whole stations have been built for this metro that will never be used. The other side is the tenders go to the lowest bidder, who then hammers the government on everything to inflate costs. Look at the Children’s Hospital. And unsuccessful bidders then bring frivolous lawsuits against the government causing further delays. Something you’d never see in the private sector. The government need to outsource the whole process to a third party that can get in the weeds. Maybe on a rolling contact. Like how the Luas is run.
It’s been delayed since the 90s, so what’s another 7 years. Funny thing is the Irish built most of the UK and America, yet they’re incapable of doing it at home, says it all really about the way this country is run.
Dublin airport and surrounding population centres would be better served with hydrogen cell powered buses using upgraded orbital road infrastructure that already exists. The global carbon footprint of another white elephant LUAS style project could be avoided, no CPOs, no army of consultants and lawyers.
@Brian Haines: The Luas has been a massive success, though. Expensive, late, but ultimately a showcase of how people will use good quality transit when provided. Too successful for its own good. The Green Line before COVID was beginning to fall to pieces under the strain.
There’s no avoiding CPOs, consultants and lawyers if we want to get meaningful infrastructure built, even for our bus systems or using electric vehicles. Bus Connects Dublin (and latterly Cork) represent the painful outlay required to reconfigure our cities, towns and villages for walking, cycling, and bus. Somehow through the painful public consultations and some rather daft initial proposals, a half-decent compromise has resulted. So expect that to hit the shredders soon too.
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