White House Press secretary Sean Spicer was unequivocal on reaching across the aisle for votes on the Republican Health Care Act: “However we get there,” he said in response to Newsmax's question about whether the administration would pursue Democratic or stubborn Republican votes in the House.
“205, 207, maybe 210,” the Spicer said, revealing for the first time roughly how many votes were behind the healthcare measure backed by the White House and Ryan before it became clear Friday it didn’t have the 216 votes needed for passage in the House.
“To get to 216,” Spicer explained, “there are things certain people want that would take what the president views as a pretty good bill and [make the bill] not worth doing because they would make the deal bad.”
Spicer added that getting the magic number would be a balancing act. “The question is, Could we add the additional votes in ways that enhance the bill or bring people over who were previous skeptics?” he asked. “I think that’s the balancing act that has to occur. I think it has to add additional folks on without pushing additional folks off.”
Spicer also revealed that, over the weekend, the president and Speaker Ryan spoke “a few times about different strategies, different ideas, different policy aspects of the bill.”
“At least two, maybe three times they’ve spoken,” he said. “And I know several of our staff members have engaged in discussions to talk about potential ways forward.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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