Republican leaders have abruptly pulled their troubled health care overhaul bill off the House floor, short of votes and eager to avoid a humiliating defeat for President Donald Trump and GOP leaders.
The Associated Press reports House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, withdrew the legislation after Trump called him and asked him to halt debate without a vote, according to Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong. Just a day earlier, Trump had demanded a House vote and said if the measure lost, he would move on to other issues.
Reports had emerged earlier in the day that the bill, known as the American Health Care Act, was in trouble ahead of a planned do-or-die vote demanded by Trump.
The setback is a blow for Trump, the self-proclaimed master deal-maker, and for Ryan on their first major legislative outing, and a huge defeat for a Republican Party that has campaigned for seven years on promises to undo the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s landmark law. The path ahead on other priorities, such as overhauling the tax code, could grow dramatically more daunting.
Earlier in the day, some of Louisiana’s congressional lawmakers had said they hadn’t yet taken a stance on the bill.
