Trump, Paul Ryan withdraw healthcare bill
House Speaker Paul Ryan declared he and US President Donald Trump have agreed to withdraw the healthcare bill after it reportedly became apparent that a minimum of 215 Republican votes will not be met. Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said the bill is dead.
The president blamed the Democrats for the failure to pass American Health Care Act (AHCA). “We couldn’t get one Democratic vote,” he told the Washington Post. The president refused to criticise Ryan, whose job includes rallying support for controversial bills. Instead, Trump praised Ryan for working very hard.
Trump promised during the 2016 presidential campaign that he will push to repeal and replace American Health Care Act, more popularly known as Obamacare. Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas previously shared that Trump is all in for the American Health Care Act.
The POTUS told reporters at the Oval Office that Obamacare can go its way for a little while. He added that if the Republicans and Democrats can work together, both parties can come up with a "great healthcare bill".
Now that the proposal was said to be dead, Trump is ready to move forward with tax cuts. “We’re probably going to start going very strongly on big tax cuts,” he said.
Ryan, who previously maintained that he was confident about the legislation, said in a press conference that he suggested for the bill to be pulled when he realised that the votes weren’t’ enough. While he admitted that the failure to pass the legislation was disappointing, he acknowledged Trump’s role in the negotiations, saying he gave his all in the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. “Still, we’ve got to do better and we will,” he added.
He said they are now going to deal with other agenda. “Now we’re going on to move on with the rest of our agenda because we have big, ambitious plans to improve people’s lives in this country,” he teased.
Meanwhile, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer explains why he thinks the Trump-backed legislation failed. He said it was due to two traits that have plagued the Trump presidency, which are incompetence and broken promises. He added that the current administration is the most incompetent he has ever seen in his life.
The health care bill would eradicate many of the taxes and remove the individual mandate imposed by Obamacare. It also restrains federal support for Medicaid and allows states to require able-bodied adults to work.
