Conservatives claim votes to stop GOP Obamacare repeal A Freedom Caucus spokeswoman says more than 25 members are opposed. It takes only 22 GOP lawmakers to block the bill.

House conservatives say they have the votes to bring down a Republican plan to replace Obamacare, threatening a core piece of President Donald Trump's agenda and sparking a frantic, eleventh-hour pressure campaign by the president and House GOP leaders.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the archconservative House Freedom Caucus, claimed Wednesday that 25 of his colleagues would reject the House's health care plan, exceeding the 22 Republican "no" votes necessary to block the legislation. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has scheduled a Thursday vote on the bill, but several Freedom Caucus members and their Senate allies urged him to postpone the vote and go back to the negotiating table.


Despite the Freedom Caucus' threat, the White House was optimistic that Trump would flip enough holdouts in the final hours of negotiation to send the bill to the Senate, where it also faces an uncertain fate. By early Wednesday afternoon, the White House claimed some successes, as Reps. Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania and Steve King of Iowa decided to support the bill after flirting with a "no" vote.

"The count keeps getting stronger for us," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said at his daily press briefing, embracing Trump's "closer" reputation and expressing confidence that the bill will ultimately pass.

But the rejection by the bulk of the Freedom Caucus belied that optimism, and it came despite Trump's direct appeals to many of his detractors.

Trump met for 90 minutes at the White House on Wednesday morning with about a dozen Freedom Caucus members. Some of his top advisers, including Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, as well as Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the gathering. "Full court press, lots of compromises [are] on the table," a senior administration official said afterward.

Another senior White House official said Trump did not want to have the vote delayed, but instead push to wrangle votes. “He’s a deal-maker. He’s going to figure out how to get it done," the official said.

Ryan, too, refused to entertain the prospect of pulling the bill before it gets a vote.

"We feel pretty good," the speaker said Wednesday afternoon on Fox News. "We know we feel good at the end of the day here because members promised we would repeal and replace this disastrous and collapsing law ... We’re talking to our members. We’re not losing votes. We’re adding votes. We feel like we’re getting really, really close."

Hard-line critics of the House health care plan said they remain opposed in part because the administration offered no policy concessions and simply gave assurances that they would try to persuade the Senate to change the bill to their liking.

“There have not been any substantive offers to change the bill before we vote on it on the House floor,” said Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.)

Rep. Justin Amash was even more succinct as he exited the meeting. “Nothing has changed,” the Michigan Republican said.

And Meadows tweeted Wednesday afternoon that "I'm still hopeful we can change the bill — I'll continue working around the clock to do so. But I cannot support the #AHCA as it stands."

For GOP leaders, it’s about more than just health care: Failure to unite congressional Republicans could undermine future efforts to build a governing coalition around the rest of Trump’s agenda. And it’s why Trump has gotten personally involved in the effort to whip votes.

The House Rules Committee is taking up the bill Wednesday before it goes to the floor.

Critics of the measure, mainly conservatives who say the bill doesn’t go far enough to gut Obamacare and slash premiums for their constituents, insist they have more than enough support to kill the measure. Already, 27 members of the Freedom Caucus firmly oppose or are leaning against the plan, known as the American Health Care Act.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), one of those conservatives, told Breitbart Radio that he had "personally spoken to 29 colleagues, conservative colleagues" who continued to oppose the GOP health plan late Tuesday. That doesn't count the half-dozen other Republicans who have publicly signaled their opposition.

"We think the negotiation starts when one party says no. That’s why we’re going to say no," he said. "This is worse than Obamacare and we’re going to own it. We’re going to own it lock, stock and barrel."

The proposal would rescind taxes imposed by Obamacare, freeze its massive expansion of the Medicaid rolls by 2020 and remake its subsidies for low-income Americans. Last-minute tweaks by House leaders to woo conservatives so far have failed to persuade enough Freedom Caucus members to come into the fold. An updated budget analysis from the Congressional Budget Office could give more fodder to the bill’s critics. The CBO estimated last week that the plan would result in 14 million more Americans going uninsured next year.

The caucus’ members who oppose the legislation are planning a news conference Wednesday to showcase their numbers. But they’re not the only lawmakers that leadership is worried about losing.

Breaking News Alerts Get breaking news when it happens — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

A handful of moderate and mainstream Republicans have rejected the proposal as well. Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen says she won’t back the measure because her district has the greatest number of Obamacare beneficiaries in the country. New Jersey Rep. Leonard Lance has also come out against the bill.

Democrats are largely steering clear of the Republican infighting, but former Vice President Joe Biden returned to the Capitol on Wednesday to rally Democratic members against the GOP efforts.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are signaling uneasiness with the bill. That, in turn, has given pause to House members about casting a politically risky vote, only to see the plan stall on the other side of the Capitol.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has emerged as its fiercest critic, egging on House conservatives to sink the bill. Late Tuesday, he predicted it would fail in the House.

“There’s easily 35 no votes right now so unless something happens in the next 24 hrs,” Paul tweeted. “I predict they pull the bill.”

Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.