More than 25 Freedom Caucus members stand poised to kill 'Obamacare Lite

According to Politico, more than 25 members of the House Freedom Caucus are standing opposed to the House Republicans' Obamacare replacement bill — the American Health Care Act — which means that the bill currently stands a few votes short of the 216 votes needed for passage.

Despite heavy lobbying from House leadership, as well as President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, the Republicans are still not jumping on board with what Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) has called "Obamacare Lite."

Because every House Democrat plans to oppose the GOP bill, the magic number of Republicans needed to vote "no" in order to kill the bill is 22. With more than two dozen members of the Freedom Caucus — a coalition of conservative Republicans in the lower chamber — planning to oppose the AHCA, the legislation House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has championed at every turn may be dead in the water.

According to CNBC, a spokesperson for the Freedom Caucus said that the legislature needs to "start over."

"If the vote were today, the bill would fail," caucus member Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) said.

The more conservative members of Congress have been battling Ryan over the GOP health care plan for some time. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) introduced a more conservative bill that focused solely on the complete repeal of Obamacare, with a two-year grace period for those using the program to obtain health insurance. Paul introduced the same bill in Senate.

Paul, who has been actively fighting the Ryan health care bill, recently declared that "Obamacare Lite" will not pass and predicted that the GOP bill will be pulled and House leadership will be forced to start over.

While the future of the AHCA looks grave, the administration is still maintaining an air of confidence about the vote.

"The count keeps getting stronger for us," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said during Wednesday's press briefing.

When asked what will happen if and when the GOP health care bill does not pass, Spicer commented, "There is no plan B."

"There’s plan A and plan A," Spicer said. "We're going to get this done. ... This is it. If you want to see Obamacare repealed and replaced, this is it. This is the vote."