April 30, 2017
Trump Pushing for Vote on Health Bill, but Stumbling Blocks Remain
Republican centrists express concern over coverage costs
By Louise Radnofsky and Kristina Peterson
Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON—The White House and top congressional Republicans are trying to build momentum for a new health-care vote this week, but skepticism among centrist members of the party remains a stumbling block in the effort to undo the Affordable Care Act.
Both President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in television interviews suggested confidence that they could win enough votes to pass a bill. But it is unclear that congressional leaders have made enough progress to call a roll, as they grapple with Republicans who have expressed concern that recent changes to satisfy more conservative lawmakers may push coverage costs higher.
Adding to the difficulties for passing any major piece of legislation is the fact that the administration is also pressing lawmakers to flesh out a massive tax cut that the Trump administration unveiled last week, while congressional leaders struggle to reconcile his principles with very different views they have on how to rewrite the tax code.
“The question is whether we can get 218 votes in the House to do big things,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R., Fla.), referring to the number of the votes generally needed to reach a majority in that chamber. Though Republicans have 238 members, they haven’t been able to unify them around legislation such as the health-care bill. Mr. Diaz-Balart said a tax-code rewrite would be even harder: “It’s no secret we have some serious, serious challenges.”
One bill lawmakers are confident they can pass: a measure that would fund the government through September before a Friday shutdown deadline. That will likely be done, however, through a spending bill that would only nod to some of Mr. Trump’s priorities—like higher defense funding, and more money for border security—without paying for the wall he wants to build along the Mexican border.
While House Republicans, in conjunction with the White House, continue to tinker with their health-care plan to win sufficient votes, officials have refused to set a fresh deadline for a vote. Members of Congress are also working with the Trump administration to craft a tax bill they can show to members, but haven’t yet given a schedule for that. Work is proceeding on both simultaneously, and congressional leaders have yet to say which one is a higher priority.
In a television interview broadcast Sunday, Mr. Trump suggested the health-care plan was near completion, telling CBS : “I didn’t put a timeline” on it, but adding: “Now we have a really good bill.…I think they could have voted on Friday.” Mr. Pence, in an interview with NBC, said “repealing and replacing Obamacare is just around the corner.”
Lawmakers in the middle of the process offer a more cautious assessment. “People that are insinuating this could happen really soon are building false expectations,” said Rep. Steve Stivers (R., Ohio) Friday. “We’re close, but there are people who have individual issues and you need to work the individual issues one by one.”
The policy wrangling comes as Mr. Trump passed his 100-day mark without a major legislative accomplishment. Asked Sunday to reflect on what he had learned in the 100 days, Mr. Trump answered: “I think things generally tend to go a little bit slower than you’d like them to go.”
“Obviously there are a lot of bumps and stumbles along the way,” Rep. Charlie Dent (R., Pa.) said of Mr. Trump’s first 100 days, though he cited rolling back regulations as what he saw as a positive step. “I just hope the second 100 days are better than the first.”
While Congress may have frustrated his agenda, Mr. Trump has in the first 100 days used the powers of the White House to take executive action, and he has signaled—including at a raucous Pennsylvania rally Saturday night to celebrate the marker—that he plans to continue doing so in the weeks ahead.
One of the main ones looming: whether to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris climate accord aimed at curbing climate change. The president said Saturday night that he would soon be “making a big decision” on the pact, which he blasted as a “one-sided” deal that could “ultimately shrink” the U.S. economy and result in factory and plant closures. His predecessor, Barack Obama, has said the deal had helped make the U.S. economy more efficient and was essential to encouraging big developing countries like China and India to reduce carbon emissions.
The White House will continue to focus on rewriting American trade policy, and three senior aides said in recent days that trade orders may dominate the remainder of the year. “There is going to be breaking news on trade every week,” one official said. The trade issue illustrates the internal tussles between Mr. Trump’s more nationalist aides and his more business-oriented advisers.
In a sign that the more hard-edged trade skeptics maintain a central role in the administration, Mr. Trump was joined in Pennsylvania Saturday by Peter Navarro, who has aggravated business leaders by pushing new trade threats, and the president signed an order creating a new trade office to be run by Mr. Navarro.
But even rewriting American trade policy ultimately requires congressional support—something Mr. Trump has learned the hard way, as various congressional rules continue to block his ability to launch a formal renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, another priority. And it will get even harder to deal with Congress next year, as the November 2018 midterm elections near.
The health-care bill has taken on a significance beyond the specific policies involved, as a symbol for whether Mr. Trump’s team has learned how to work with Congress. The past two weeks suggest relations still aren’t smooth.
Some Republican aides have complained they are being set up to fail after members of Mr. Trump’s team had previously predicted a House vote was going to take place last Wednesday.
At the time of the suggestion, members of Congress were scattered across the country and the world for a recess, making it impossible for leaders to accurately count votes.
House Republicans tried to cobble together a majority last week, but they again came up short, and on Thursday conceded they would have no swift vote in the immediate days that followed.
And even if Mr. Trump succeeds in pushing the health bill through the House, it faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
Mr. Trump on Sunday expressed his frustration with the many ways that Washington has stymied his agenda.
“It’s just a very, very bureaucratic system,” he said on CBS. “I think the rules in Congress and in particular the rules in the Senate are unbelievably archaic and slow moving. And in many cases, unfair. In many cases, you’re forced to make deals that are not the deal you’d make.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-pushing-for-vote-on-health-bill-but-stumbling-blocks-remain-1493596133
Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months