For six years, republicans have been saying that they've wanted to kill Obamacare. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- who has been giving Republicans their marching orders ever since -- has even said that they would get rid of Obamacare "root and branch." But in the first few months of the new Trump administration, Republicans failed miserably at being able to get even the most conservative of their own party members to vote for the replacement. Even the President himself was unable to get those members to submit, making him look to many like a bad dealmaker.
Trump's latest attempt to repeal Obamacare
During the last week of April, Trump went for it again, saying that Congress should be able to cancel certain subsidies provided through the Affordable Care Act to put towards funding the administration's request for border security, with the looming deadline of a potential government shutdown, but Democrats -- who are appropriately against the effort -- refused and Republicans seeing the reality, didn't pursue it any further.
They were able to put in a continuing resolution to fund the government for another week, but at the same time, Republicans had apparently been working to put together a new Health Care Bill that they're looking to introduce during the next week.
The trick is in finding the right balance of agreement within their members to get enough votes to pass it.
The uphill battle to repeal
Over the next week, Congress will be looking to pass a broader omnibus spending bill until the end of the year. But as they try to put together a bill for their American Health Care Act, they're having a difficult time trying to get moderates and centrists on board as the changes made in the bill mostly cater to the far right.
Over the Easter Break, many senators returned to their home districts to face angry constituents over the health care law and other issues related to Trump. Unless those representatives care to satisfy those constituents, they could very well become the votes that Republicans need to pass the bill. But Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) said that he hasn't seen Republicans who were once "no" voters become "yes" voters.
But these voters are in the House of Representatives, and, according to some reports, Republicans are concerned that even if they were able to pass it in the House, the bill would still have to go to the Senate where it could be blocked. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said that they would vote on the bill when they have enough votes to do so. Democrats have said that they would be willing to work with Republicans to fix problems in the bill but will not get involved as long as they seek to repeal it.
