"After a day of meetings on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, House Republicans and President Donald “The Closer” Trump appeared no closer to passing their unpopular healthcare bill.
As the bill grew more conservative overnight, leadership watched as moderate Republicans jumped ship—leaving them increasingly at the mercy of the House Freedom Caucus. A visibly frustrated Rep. Patrick McHenry, the chief deputy whip of the Republican Conference, hurried through the halls midday telling reporters that the Freedom Caucus has been presented with a deal and it was up to them to “accept or reject” it.
While leadership frantically plied the remaining moderates with pizza, the Freedom Caucus met at the White House in an attempt to woo more caucus votes for his Trumpcare legislation. During the meeting, the White House offered nixing the so-called “essential health benefits” from the House bill—a proposal that would prove anathema to more moderate Republicans in both the House and Senate. The president, however, did not budge on Title I of the Affordable Care Act, which many members of the caucus deemed a dealbreaker.
Upon their return to the Hill, they huddled behind closed doors inside the Rayburn Office Building for two hours, before emerging to tell reporters very little had changed.
“We have not gotten enough of our members to get to yes at this point under what we’re currently considering,” Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, told reporters, emerging from a closed-door meeting in the Rayburn House Office Building, following his latest face-to-face with Trump.
He noted that “progress,” however fruitless at this point, was being made with the president."
Healthcare Repeal Efforts In Tailspin As Freedom Caucus Vows to Defeat AHCA - The Daily Beast
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