House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) agrees with President Donald Trump's warning last week that there will be a "bloodbath" in the 2018 midterm elections if the Republicans don't pass an Obamacare replacement bill.
"The president has said there will be a 'bloodbath' in 2018 if [the American Health Care Act] isn't passed through the House and Senate. Do you agree?" CBS News' "Face the Nation" host John Dickerson asked Sunday.
"I do believe," Ryan responded, "if we don't keep our word to the people who sent us here, yeah."
Trump said 2018 would be "bloodbath" if AHCA fails. @SpeakerRyan agrees: If we don't keep our word to the people who sent us here, yeah. pic.twitter.com/bJ943jN8H4
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 12, 2017
Last week, the speaker introduced the American Health Care Act, the House GOP-backed bill to replace the Affordable Care Act. Though Ryan has insisted the Republicans will pass the AHCA and White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway is "very confident" about the law's future, not every conservative is on board.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said during an interview on Fox News' "Fox and Friends" last week that the AHCA "will not pass" Congress in its current state. In fact, he described the law as nothing more than "Obamacare Lite.""Premiums and prices will continue to spiral out of control," he said.
Furthermore, in a Fox News op-ed with Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Ryan said the AHCA keeps "Obamacare-like subsidies to buy insurance but rename[s] them refundable tax credits."
Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), who is also a member of the Freedom Caucus, told Politico he would vote against the GOP plan as it is because it "maintains many of the federal features, including a new entitlement program, as well as most of the insurance regulations."
"I have seen no evidence that this bill will bring the cost curve down," he said.
And over the weekend, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin blasted the health care proposal in an interview on Breitbart News Radio, calling the bill "RINO-care," meaning, "Republican in name only."
"Remember," she said, "this is government-controlled health care, the system that requires enrollment in an unaffordable, unsustainable, unwanted, unconstitutional continuation of government-run medicine, and even in this new quasi-reformed proposal, there is still an aspect of socialism."
She later said that Trump will have to "step in and fix it." She added, "I have great faith that President Trump is one who will fulfill campaign promises."
However, just after the AHCA was made public, Trump took to Twitter to praise the "wonderful" proposal. The president, hoping to get everyone on board, also met last week with the leaders of conservative groups with major reservations about the GOP plan.
Nevertheless, Palin is confident Trump will remedy the "unwanted, unconstitutional" health care law.
"I’m sure that President Trump is going to do the right thing and listen to all sides, of course. But understand, especially, that as a businessman, he’s going to understand whether this makes sense in his vision of how to grow businesses and how to get government off our back and back on our side," she said.
