Add Category
Updated
United States President Donald Trump has suffered a stunning political setback in a Congress controlled by his own party, with Republican leaders pulling legislation to overhaul the US healthcare system, a major 2016 election campaign promise of the President and his allies.
Key points:
- "This is a disappointing day for us," Paul Ryan says
- He says he does not know what the next steps will be on healthcare
- Repealing and replacing Obamacare was one of Donald Trump's top campaign promises
Thwarted by two factions of fellow Republicans, from the centre and far right, House Speaker Paul Ryan said former president Barack Obama's healthcare law would remain in place "for the foreseeable future".
It was a stunning defeat for the new President after he had demanded House Republicans delay no longer and vote on the legislation on Friday, pass or fail.
His gamble failed. Instead Mr Trump, who campaigned as a master deal-maker and claimed that he alone could fix the nation's healthcare system, saw his ultimatum rejected by Republican lawmakers who made clear they answer to their own voters, not to the President.
The bill was withdrawn just minutes before the House vote was to occur, and lawmakers said there were no plans to revisit the issue.
Republicans will try to move ahead on other agenda items, including overhauling the tax code, though the failure on the health bill can only make whatever comes next immeasurably harder.
"We learned a lot about loyalty. We learned a lot about the vote-getting process," Mr Trump told reporters at the White House, although he sought to shift the blame to the Democrats, who were unified in their opposition even though his party controlled the White House, the House and the Senate.
The Obama law was approved in 2010 with no Republican votes.
Despite reports of backbiting from administration officials toward Mr Ryan, Mr Trump said: "I like Speaker Ryan. I think Paul really worked hard."
For his part, Mr Ryan said: "I will not sugar-coat this. This is a disappointing day for us.
"Obamacare is the law of the land, it's going to remain the law of the land until it's replaced.
"We did not have quite the votes to replace this law, and so we will be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future."
He said he did not know what the next steps would be on healthcare.
"The President gave his all in this effort. He did everything he possibly could to help see the opportunity we have with this bill," Mr Ryan said.
"Still, we've got to do better and we will, I absolutely believe that. This is a setback, no two ways about it, but it is not the end of the story, because I know every man and woman in this conference is motivated now more than ever to step up our game, to deliver on our promises."
Last year, Republicans used the issue to gain and keep control of the White House, Senate and House.
During the previous years they had cast dozens of votes to repeal Mr Obama's law in full or in part, but when they finally got the chance to pass a repeal version that actually had a chance to become law, they could not deliver.
Democrats could hardly contain their satisfaction.
"Today is a great day for our country, what happened on the floor is a victory for the American people," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who as speaker herself helped Mr Obama pass the Affordable Care Act in the first place.
"Let's just for a moment breathe a sigh of relief for the American people."
The outcome leaves both Mr Ryan and Mr Trump weakened politically.
For the President, this piles a big early congressional defeat onto the continuing inquiries into his presidential campaign's Russia connections and his unfounded wiretapping allegations against Mr Obama.
AP/Reuters
Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, health, healthcare-facilities, united-states
First posted