White House on Obamacare vote: U.S. ‘not a dictatorship’
WASHINGTON — Bracing for the possible defeat of the Republican plan to repeal and replace parts of Obamacare, the White House emphasized Friday that President Trump had done everything he could to muscle the controversial bill to passage.
But, “at the end of the day, this isn’t a dictatorship,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer noted.
Hours before a scheduled House of Representatives vote on the American Health Care Act (AHCA), Spicer told reporters that “you can’t force someone to vote a certain way” but described Trump as having led an aggressive campaign on the measure’s behalf.
“Has he done every single thing? Has he pulled out every stop? Has he called every member? Has he tweaked every tweak? Has he done every single thing he can possibly and used every minute of every day that’s possible to get this thing through? The answer is yes. Has the team put everything out there, have we left everything on the field? Absolutely,” Spicer said. “But at the end of the day, this isn’t a dictatorship, and we’ve got to expect members to ultimately vote how they will.”
Trump and his top advisers, including Vice President Mike Pence, have spent the week aggressively courting Republican lawmakers who have balked at supporting the GOP-drafted bill to repeal and replace parts of Obamacare, the dramatic overhaul of the health care system that was passed in 2010.
Spicer spoke as the House headed towards a scheduled 3:30 p.m. vote on the measure. Republican congressional aides privately expressed pessimism in the face of stiff resistance inside the GOP to the unpopular bill. Conservative House members of the Freedom Caucus said they felt that the bill did not go far enough, while more moderate members from states that benefited from President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement worried that it would leave too many people without coverage.
The press secretary again expressed deep frustration with Republicans who have promised voters ever since Obamacare became law that they will repeal and replace it, but have nevertheless refused to embrace the proposal under consideration.
“Since 2010, every Republican — with the exception of probably a handful — has campaigned from dogcatcher on up [on a promise] that they would do everything they could to repeal and replace Obamacare,” Spicer said.
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