President Trump notched a crucial victory on Thursday with House approval of legislation to partially repeal Obamacare.
It’s Trump’s first major legislative win and comes after months of setbacks for his administration that cast doubt on the president’s negotiating abilities and called into question how much credibility he has with Congressional Republicans.
The American Health Care Act cleared the House by just one vote with no Democratic support. The bill now heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain.
But the furthering of a 7-year-old campaign promise that appeared all but dead days ago has invigorated Trump’s influence on Capitol Hill and gives Republicans more confidence in his leadership. That was their assessment following action in the House.
“This is an important first step, which is something, now, that we can build on,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the Republican Conference chairman. “I’m confident.”
“I give the president a lot of credit,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said. “His getting involved early and individually — he met with over 150 members in this process — has been really critical.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., six weeks ago was forced to cancel a vote on the original version of the AHCA amid infighting among conservatives and centrists. At the time, Trump said he was through with healthcare and moving on to tax reform.
It was a spectacular failure that generated widespread criticism of Trump. His negotiating skills were dismissed as less than advertised and his ability to govern was questioned.
Tax reform, next on Trump’s agenda, appeared threatened as a malaise set in, in reaction to the administration’s inability to engineer something as fundamental to the Republican Party as eliminating Obamacare.
Trump eventually re-engaged on healthcare, and House passage of the AHCA could provide a much-needed reset, boosting not just the prospects for repealing Obamacare, but putting tax reform and the rest of Trump’s agenda on firmer ground.
Trump said as much, during a celebratory White House news conference.
“This has brought the Republican Party together,” Trump said in the Rose Garden, flanked by House Republicans. “We’re going to get this finished and then we’re going, as you know, we put our tax plan in, it’s a massive tax cut. The biggest tax cut in the history of our country.”
Trump altered his involvement in the healthcare negotiations after House GOP leaders pulled the bill from the floor in late March.
To that point, the president was strong-arming and threatening members, with him and his senior White House team mediating talks between House GOP factions. After the negotiations restarted, Trump and his advisers remained active but did so behind the scenes, assisting as requested but letting members take the lead.
Republican insiders said that made a difference, easing the way for a series of consensus amendments that brought on board the holdouts among the factions of conservatives and centrists.
“Quiet work is better work,” a senior Republican House aide said, requesting anonymity in order to speak candidly about the president.
Since winning the majority in 2010, House Republicans have been their own worst enemy.
Failure to agree among themselves often diminished their ability to force the Democrats to the negotiating table and swallow conservative reforms. That was supposed to change with Trump in the White House and the opportunity at hand to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law.
The deal finally came together because House Republicans grew tired of the stalemate. Their frustration motivated them to redouble efforts to strike a deal, which they did after learning to be more ideologically flexible and overcoming fears of political reprisals in 2018.
“This is a critical piece of legislation that we have been making campaign promises on for seven years and if I can’t deliver here, I need to go home,” Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said.
