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Trump Pulls the Plug on Health Care Bill Moments Before the House Vote to Repeal and Replace Obamacare

Paul Ryan says the GOP is unsure of how they will move forward.

On Friday afternoon, House Speaker Paul Ryan confirmed the president pulled the vote on the American Health Care Act just before the vote was scheduled to take place. Before the cancellation was announced, Robert Costa of the Washington Post reported the president called him and said "we just pulled it."

Paul Ryan spoke to a room of reporters and admitted that he is unsure of how they will move forward. He said that for now "Obamacare is the law of the land," and he does not know how long it will take the GOP to offer a new replacement. 

The House Speaker made it clear that the GOP is prepared to move on to other items on their agenda and will seemingly be pausing the health care topic for now. 

On Thursday evening, House Republicans held an intense meeting behind closed doors, wherein changes and compromises were made to the bill in order to sway more votes. However, it’s become clear the edits have not done enough to gain the amount of votes needed to pass the bill.

As lawmakers met on the House floor to debate the bill on Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan was seen running to the White House to inform the president that he did not have enough votes to pass the legislation he penned, reported the New York Times.

Although Ryan told Trump the votes were not lining up in their favor, the president reportedly offered an ultimatum and said lawmakers will still need to cast their votes by the end of Friday or Obamacare will stay. 

Several House Republicans have publicly opposed the bill and do not seem threatened by the president's tactic. 

“Seven years after enactment of Obamacare, I wanted to support legislation that made positive changes to rescue health care in America,” Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey wrote in a statement. “Unfortunately, the legislation before the House today is currently unacceptable as it would place significant new costs and barriers to care on my constituents in New Jersey.”

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