Rep. Sean Duffy said Monday he doesn’t think Republicans quite have the votes “yet” to pass legislation rolling back parts of Obamacare but predicted they’ll get there with a little help from President Trump.
“I don’t think we have the votes yet to actually pass it, so you’ve seen Donald Trump, the president, engage,” Mr. Duffy, Wisconsin Republican, said on “Fox & Friends.” “We have some Freedom Caucus members who are still no.”
“The president’s pretty good at this. So he’s going to come in, he can make some last-minutes tweaks on the bill and hopefully get these guys on board,” Mr. Duffy said.
“So I am very optimistic. Paul Ryan and our whip have been counting folks and seeing what tweaks they need to make to get them to yes, and I think we’re going to get there,” he said.
Mr. Ryan, the House speaker, and others in Republican leadership have been weighing various elements within the GOP caucus as they prepare for a possible vote on the American Health Care Act later this week.
Some of the more conservative members say Obamacare should be repealed immediately and in its entirety and that the GOP bill doesn’t do that, while other Republican members have expressed concerns about how the legislation deals with Medicaid.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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