House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday that he was “highly confident” that an Obamacare repeal bill would pass Congress this year and be signed by President Trump.
“It’s closer than it is further away,” McCarthy said about Republicans reaching an agreement on repealing the federal healthcare law. “We’ve got everyone in the room talking about it. We’ll get it done.”
At an event hosted by Axios, the California Republican faced questions about whether he is being tough enough in gathering the Republican votes needed to pass the bill. McCarthy replied by referring to the TV series “House of Cards,” a show about Washington lawmakers in which the main character managed to pass education reform in a week.
“Well, if you watch that show he literally murders a member of Congress,” McCarthy joked.
He added that it was important for members to work together to pass healthcare legislation, and pointed to disagreements that materialized when lawmakers tried to pass Obamacare.
“I’d rather win on the power of the idea than the power of the stick,” McCarthy said.
House Republicans failed two weeks ago to reach an agreement on a bill that House leadership and the White House sponsored as a vehicle to repeal portions of Obamacare. Disagreement came from more conservative members of the party, including the House Freedom Caucus, who believed the bill didn’t go far enough in repealing Obamacare. But a growing number of moderate Republicans are also worried about how the bill could reduce people’s access to coverage and care.
The bill was ultimately pulled from the House floor before a vote, and though Trump had said he was prepared to move on to other priorities, Republicans have resumed talks to see whether they can make alterations to the bill that would bring more members on board.
“It’s not a loss,” McCarthy said about the party’s inability to pass legislation two weeks ago. “In politics you have ups and downs … It’s simply a chapter where you learn to move forward.”
