White House spokesman Sean Spicer said President Trump remains “optimistic” that the Republican healthcare bill will pass the House this week, less than an hour after the House Freedom Caucus said it has enough votes to kill the bill in the House.
“I would say that former Congressman [Mick] Mulvaney, now Office of Management and Budget Director Mulvaney, who was a leader in that caucus, has been a very strong advocate of this policy,” Spicer said. “He’s been up on the Hill talking to his former colleagues, assuring them of the effort and why the process has to go the way it does.”
“I am optimistic in the sense of what we are seeing and the trajectory of where this is going, and the number of votes that are flowing our way, not the other way,” Spicer said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan can only afford to lose 22 Republican votes on Thursday, when the House vote is scheduled, but the HFC said it has at least 25 “no” votes from their Republican members, putting passage of the GOP’s American Health Care Act in doubt.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the HFC, urged the administration to “start over” on healthcare reform after meeting with Trump and several lawmakers on Wednesday.
“That sounds like one member’s’ opinion,” Spicer shot back.
