Ryan won’t commit to healthcare vote

One week after the GOP ObamaCare repeal and replacement plan collapsed, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday he would not commit to holding another healthcare vote.

“I’m not going to commit to when and what the vote is going to look like, because it’s my job to make sure that House Republicans can coalesce and come together and draw a consensus,” Ryan told reporters at his weekly news conference.

“What I’m encouraging our members to do is figure out what solutions get us to a bill that everyone can vote for and pass,” the speaker added. “That’s the kind of conversations that are occurring.”

{mosads}“This is too big of an issue to not get right, so I’m not going to put some artificial deadline on saving the American health care system from an oncoming collapse.”

Ryan and other GOP leaders yanked the American Health Care Act from the House floor last Friday, after failing to whip up the votes needed to pass it. Despite a frantic effort by President Trump and Ryan, the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus rejected the bill for not going far enough in repealing Obamacare provisions, while moderate conservatives balked at other portions of the plan.

Trump has taken aim at the Freedom Caucus several times since, more recently in a Thursday morning tweet that charged the group “will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!” 

The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2017

“I understand the president’s frustration,” Ryan said when asked to respond to Trump’s tweet. “I share that frustration. About 90 percent of our conference is for this bill and about 10 percent are not. And that’s not enough to pass the bill. We’re close.”

“It’s very understandable that the president is frustrated that we haven’t gotten to where we need to go, because this is something we all said we would do,” he continued. “So he is just expressing his frustration. You all know he does that in various forms, including Twitter.”