White House Legislative Affairs Director: We Think We Have the Votes to Repeal Obamacare in Spring 2019

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short stated that the White House believes it has enough commitments for votes to repeal Obamacare when the next chance to do so comes up in the spring of 2019.

Short said, “I think that this year in some ways we ran out of time. What happened is because you’re looking to repeal Obamacare under budget reconciliation, that budget window closed on September 30th. What we found with the Graham-Cassidy idea of block granting dollars back to the states, getting Washington, DC out of the way of trying to control healthcare and letting states have more flexibility in the plans, there became more and more receptivity to it. But there are a couple of members who are worried about the process and felt there weren’t enough hearings and questions.”

Short added, “[W]e now believe, when we get the next chance, that we now have the commitments for the votes. But the reality is, that that probably won’t be until a 2019 budget’s passed sometime next spring.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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