A second round of negotiations over the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare have given top White House officials cause for optimism, press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday.
“I think the talks have been very productive,” Spicer told reporters at the White House. “The president would like to see this done, if we can get a deal and it gets to those votes.”
Spicer said chief of staff Reince Priebus and Vice President Mike Pence had met with moderate members of the Republican Tuesday Group and had traveled to Capitol Hill to discuss potential changes to healthcare legislation Monday evening.
“They’ve got some additional meetings today,” Spicer added. “I think both the chief of staff and the vice president feel very optimistic with the tone of the conversation and the ideas that are coming out.”
Conservative lawmakers have demanded changes to the healthcare bill that would do more to dismantle insurance regulations created by Obamacare, while moderate Republicans have questioned whether the removal of such protections would leave their sickest constituents vulnerable to rising costs.
“We’re not there yet,” Spicer said of the deal presently under consideration. “We’re having discussions … I get that there are disparate interests that are trying to pull this to one side or the other.”
Spicer declined to elaborate on the specific changes White House officials would like to see included in the Republican bill.
“I don’t want to start prejudging where this thing is going to head,” he said.
