The White House doesn’t know if there are enough votes to pass the American Health Care Act, just hours before the House is expected to meet President Trump’s demand and hold the vote Friday.
“Don’t know,” White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on ABC when asked if the votes are there. “That’s up to the House to count their own votes. The president made his final pitch last night, made it clear we’re all on the same page. Republicans all want the same thing. They want to get rid of Obamacare and give people the control and the options that they want, the quality that they need and the affordability that they deserve.”
Mulvaney delivered Trump’s message to House GOP lawmakers Thursday night that Trump was done negotiating with skeptical conservative lawmakers. The White House wants a vote on Friday, and should the bill fail they plan to move on to other parts of the president’s agenda.
Mulvaney said the AHCA is the best shot to repeal Obamacare, or at least as much as Republican lawmakers can do right now.
“There’s no way to fully repeal this,” he said. “Go back seven years. Senate Democrats had 60 votes and were able to put some of Obamacare in with 60 votes. We don’t have that. This repeals as much of Obamacare as legally possible when we have 52 votes in the Senate.”
On House vote on health care bill: https://t.co/7LlfHbh7mY@GStephanopoulos: "Do you have the votes?" WH Budget Director: "Don't know." pic.twitter.com/KVFar94TY8— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 24, 2017
