It's well past time for House Speaker Paul Ryan to cut his losses on Zombie Trumpcare and move on. Various whip counts show that he's got one, maybe two votes to play with and a large bloc of undecided members not moving to "yes." As of Tuesday morning's House Republican conference, he doesn't have the votes to send it to the floor. And, by the way, isn't even talking about getting a Congressional Budget Office score for it, since that apparently doesn't matter anymore.
While the White House continues to push for the bill, with Vice President Mike Pence heading there again Tuesday to try to scare up votes and to make it happen this week, it's not working.
Even some GOP deputy whips, members who are normally dispatched to do leadership’s bidding and build support for proposals, reported on Monday that they were undecided. David Valadao (R-Calif.), Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), and Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.), who actually lives with Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) when they’re in D.C., all reported Monday that they hadn’t made up their minds.
But the most significant news Monday came from another usually solid GOP leadership ally: Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.). Long declared in a statement that he was a no on the health care bill because an amendment worked out between moderate leader Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) and Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) “strips away any guarantee that pre-existing conditions would be covered and affordable.” […]
Trump actually called Long on Monday to convince him to support the bill, but his pleas didn’t work. Neither did a long conversation on the floor Monday night with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
Long told HuffPost on Monday night that leadership didn’t need his vote. “They got 40 Freedom Caucus votes,” Long said. “Why do they need me?”
While all this is going on, Senate Republicans want nothing to do with it. One Republican operative reports that at this point there are only maybe 25 Republicans on board on that side of Capitol Hill, and that that number is shrinking. But Ryan keeps flogging this thing, even telling his members to pray for the vote. If they do this, they should be praying for their future political careers.
Keep calling. We can beat this.
House Republicans are hell-bent on ripping away our health insurance. Call your member of Congress at 202-224-3121, and demand they vote NO on a renewed Trumpcare that is worse than the one before. Remind them they work for you.