Exclusive — House
Freedom Caucus Not Budging, Official Position Is for Full Repeal Alternative to
Paul Ryan’s Obamacare 2.0
by Matthew Boyle 8 Mar 2017Washington, D.C.
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s
Obamacare 2.0 does not and will not have 218
votes—the requisite number to pass the House of Representatives—since the House
Freedom Caucus’ official position is lined up against the bill, Freedom Caucus
sources tell Breitbart News.
A member of the House Freedom Caucus tells Breitbart News
that is an official position of the House Freedom Caucus is against the earlier
version of the bill—a leaked draft—but also formally for the full repeal bill
and then a replacement bill from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). That position has not
changed nor it is expected to at any point between now and if and when
leadership attempts to ram this bill through the House, this member added.
Also, for the House Freedom Caucus to take an official position—which again
binds its members to vote a certain way in the House, meaning that as a bloc
the Freedom Caucus is expected not to vote for this bill—it requires 80 percent
of its membership to back the official position. That means, given that there
are a few more than 40 members of the House Freedom Caucus, there are
definitely well more than 30 members who voted internally to take that position
in the Freedom Caucus—and it appears as though the Freedom Caucus’ 40 plus
members are completely united in support of this position.
While technically the House Freedom Caucus has not yet
taken an official position on this bill, the official position it has taken on
healthcare in favor of real full repeal and then the Paul bill precludes
members from voting for this bill—unless something changes down the road, which
it is not expected to.
“Our members are united in opposition,” a House Freedom
Caucus source told Breitbart News. “If they brought it up for a vote today it’d
fail. Our group is united in the belief that this is the moment the freedom
caucus exists for — to block this monstrosity and protect the POTUS from
walking into an electoral disaster in 2020 because of it.”
Simply doing vote math, Republicans need 218 votes to
pass any bill out of the House of Representatives. There are more than 40
members of the House Freedom Caucus. With only 237 Republicans comprising the
majority in the House, and 193 Democrats with 5 vacancies, Republicans cannot
afford to lose approximately 20 votes depending on those vacancies and
absences. No Democrats are expected to vote for the bill.
If the vote fails, as it is expected to at this time,
then Ryan will be in serious trouble in terms of his credibility. He has
repeatedly publicly stated that he will be able to deliver 218 votes for this Obamacare
2.0 legislation, “The American Health Care Act,” at multiple press conferences
over the past few days. Ryan’s bold promise to deliver the votes for this bill
no matter what is a risky move, with at least more than 40 Republicans against
it when he can only afford to lose less than 20, since twisting more than 20
arms is a tough thing to do on an issue this important. It remains to be seen
what will happen next, but top conservatives are already calling on Ryan to
withdraw Obamacare 2.0 and go in a different direction than this way before
things get worse. A failure by Ryan would be especially embarrassing for
Republicans, including to President Donald Trump.
Obamacare
Obamacare
is Barack Obama’s signature policy
initiative.
Note: CGI Group Inc.
is the contractor that developed the Healthcare.gov
web site for Obamacare.
Donna S. Morea
was an EVP for the CGI Group Inc.,
and a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Committee for Economic Development, and the Economic Policy Institute.
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and is the
founder & chairman for the Open
Society Foundations.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Committee for Economic Development, and the Economic Policy Institute.
Alice M. Rivlin
is a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development, and a member of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is a paid for staff by the Economic Policy Institute.
Paul
Ryan is a member of the National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and a member & speaker
for the U.S. House of Representatives.
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