Obamacare remains law of the land as Republican healthcare bill falls short

Bill faced opposition on both sides

WASHINGTON (INTELLIHUB) — As expected by many, the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare has fallen short on support as Speaker of the House Paul Ryan made his way to the White House on Friday afternoon to inform President Donald Trump that the first big legislative move under the new administration would not progress through the House.

The President had decided to place the motion to overhaul Obamacare on postponement minutes ahead of a scheduled floor vote.

“We’ve seen the whip count. We know where the vote count stands. We don’t need a live vote to tell us where the votes are,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told the press.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer at a Mar. 24 press conference. (S.C. via White House/YouTube)

Despite Trump’s Thursday ultimatum demanding the American Health Care Act be voted on Friday, at 3:30 p.m. the motion was canceled as it became clear the party didn’t have enough votes to pass it.

The bill faced opposition from both the conservative and moderate sides of the Republican aisle as many thought that the bill was either too much like the Affordable Care Act or would leave a large sum of Americans without issuance.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) Gage Skidmore/Flickr

As we reported on Tuesday, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul had made the prediction that Speaker Ryan would be forced to pull the AHCA from a vote due to lack of support and eventually start from scratch. At the time Paul believed there were at least 35 no votes.

“We came really close today, but we came up short,” Ryan told reporters on Friday. “I will not sugar coat this, this is a disappointing day for us.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Ryan said he did not want to cast the blame on anyone, including the Freedom Caucus, for the bill’s failure.

Editor’s note: Intellihub editor-in-chief Shepard Ambellas predicted this back in January in an article titled “GOP to block repeal of Obamacare by stalling” which explains how the U.S. government really works.

Joseph Jankowski is a contributor for Intellihub News & Politics and Planet Free Will. His works have been published by recognizable alternative news sites like GlobalResearch.ca, ActivistPost.com, Infowars.com, and ZeroHedge.com.

Featured Image: Keoni Cabral/Flickr

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