Just ahead of Thursday’s vote, it’s a tale of two Trumpcare whip counts in Washington. House Speaker Paul Ryan is sticking to his guns and says Trump is "closing the deal" with Freedom Caucus members. Those same maniacs remain steadfast in denying that, now upping the chance that the bill dies on the floor to 90 percent.
It sure seems like the House extremists have decided where their true allegiance lies (and it's not with constituents) because when it comes down to the Koch brothers, Heritage Foundation, and the Club for Growth, they seem happy to leave Trump and Ryan in the dust. Two Koch groups, Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, are opposing the bill. What's more, AFP is making this a key vote on their scorecard, barring further changes to the bill. They're joined by Heritage Action in making this a key vote that they'll use against any lawmaker who votes for it.
Club for Growth is putting money behind it.
Club for Growth on Monday night warned that House leadership hasn't made sufficient changes to the bill and announced an ad buy of more than $500,000 targeting potential swing votes including Reps. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.), John Katko (R-N.Y.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Rob Wittman (R-Va.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Pete King (R-N.Y.), Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.).
Several of the targeted lawmakers—including Lance, Katko, Ros-Lehtinen and Issa—have voiced serious doubts about the bill or already said they wouldn't vote for it.
These members are not Freedom Caucus types, so they aren't having to prove their loyalty to the extremist groups. That's not what this is about.
This is about the primaries they're going to get from the right in 2018. They're not going to be such a hard group to convince, considering voting to take health insurance away from their constituents wouldn't really help most of them in their districts. From both the right and the left, it makes the most sense for them to vote no.
The House is scheduled to vote on Trumpcare on THURSDAY, MARCH 23. Even if you already called your member of Congress, do it again by calling the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Jam the phone lines, urge them to vote NO.