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House Budget chair 'disappointed' in GOP health care bill failure
House Budget Chairwoman Diane Black said she's "disappointed" that the American Health Care Act was unable to make it to a floor vote Friday despite days of negotiations with White House officials and the House Freedom Caucus. (Bill Clark/Getty Images)

House Budget chair 'disappointed' in GOP health care bill failure

House Budget Chair Diane Black (R-Tenn.) said Friday evening that she is "disappointed" the Republicans' health care plan was not able to even make it to a vote.

House Republicans withdrew the contentious American Health Care Act Friday after failing to secure enough votes to pass it.

"I'm disappointed that we were not able to move forward with today's vote as the American Health Care Act was a good first step to repealing Obamacare and creating a patient-covered health care system," Black said in a statement Friday provided to TheBlaze.

The Tennessee lawmaker and former nurse told TheBlaze just last week that she viewed part of her "responsibility" as Budget chair to ensure other House Republicans understood just what the health care legislation entailed.

The AHCA was adamantly opposed by members of the House Freedom Caucus which argued that the bill did not go far enough with provision its members said are important to conservatives.

"It's critical that Republicans come together on this issue to find real solutions because Obamacare is doing serious damage to the people of my district," Black said Friday. "I remain committed to repealing Obamacare and pushing for solutions that lower costs, increase access and put patients back in charge of their health care."

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) also addressed the major setback Friday afternoon in a press conference, in which he said he was still "really proud" of the bill which Republicans put forth.

"We came really close today, but we came up short," Ryan said.

In a phone call with the Washington Post's Robert Costa Friday, President Donald Trump handed down heavy blame on House Democrats for the AHCA's failure – despite opposition from conservative lawmakers as well.

Trump contended that Democrats will eventually want to work with him to change the Affordable Care Act — dubbed Obamacare.

"As you know, I've been saying for years that the best thing is to let Obamacare explode and then go make a deal with the Democrats and have one unified deal," Trump told the Washington Post. "And they will come to us; we won't have to come to them."

"I’ll fix it as it explodes," Trump added. "They’re going to come to ask for help. They’re going to have to. Here’s the good news: Health care is now totally the property of the Democrats."

[graphiq id="2rOzQsXUr3f" title="Approval of the AHCA" width="600" height="599" url="https://w.graphiq.com/w/2rOzQsXUr3f" ]

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