obamacare

Former President Barack Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in the East Room of the White House on March 23, 2010. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Members of Congress may lack the courage to vote to repeal Obamacare, U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks said Friday.

If that's the case, it would be a significant blow to President Trump and Republicans who campaigned on the promise of repealing and replacing Obamacare.

Brooks said protests taking place across the country have made some members of Congress less eager to take down the landmark universal healthcare system established by former President Barack Obama.

Though he mentioned no members of Congress by name, Brooks harshly criticized though backing away from repealing Obamacare.

"In my opinion, the massive obstructionist nature of the protests, particularly the disruption of town hall meetings, is having an effect on a good number of our more liberal, big government, weak-kneed, squishy-spined Republican senators and House members," Brooks said.

"In the absence of a counter force, the protests will likely be successful in preventing an outright repeal of Obamacare."

Brooks said that in his mind, a repeal of Obamacare would strip away 100 percent of the healthcare law. Some members of Congress, he said, consider amending parts of Obamacare as a repeal.

"If we had had the votes to repeal Obamacare, we probably would have done it the first week we were sworn in way back around Jan. 4," Brooks said. "And that's almost two months ago. The very fact that we did not vote to repeal Obamacare back then is a very strong indicator that there are not 218 Republicans in the House, certainly not 51 votes in the Senate, to repeal Obamacare.

"There are enough liberal, big government Republicans to block our repeal efforts."

The repeal dilemma, Brooks said, lands at the feet of President Trump.

"There is still a small chance that the House and the Senate will repeal Obamacare," Brooks said. "But for that to happen, Donald Trump has to take a very strong lead and twist enough arms and give enough spines and steel they need to get us to 218 votes we need in the House of Representatives and the 51 votes we need in the Senate to pass the Obamacare repeal.

"Donald Trump is the key. I don't know what he will do. He's never held public office before and you never know what a candidate will do if they have no voting track record. So we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully, he will keep his campaign promises. He's been pretty good at that so far and I hope he will insist on a complete repeal of Obamacare."