White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told CNBC on Friday that President Donald Trump is indeed done negotiating on the House GOP’s Obamacare replacement bill.
Mulvaney also said he’s not sure the administration has enough votes for passage.
There may still be some jockeying around the edges on Capitol Hill to try to secure votes, which would be OK, as long as the underlying legislation remains unchanged, Mulvaney said on “Squawk Box.”
Mulvaney, formerly a congressman from South Carolina and a Freedom Caucus member, said Trump’s ultimatum for a House vote Friday was directed at all House Republicans.
No one group, such as the Freedom Caucus, was being singled out, he said.
The House vote was postponed Thursday after Republican leaders failed to rally enough support to pass the bill because of a rebellion by the conservative Freedom Caucus and moderate Republicans. Trump has demanded the House approve the plan on Friday or leave Obamacare in place.
Many members of the Freedom Caucus don’t believe the GOP health bill goes far enough to eradicate Obamacare’s framework.
One of them, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, told CNBC in a separate interview on Friday that he’s going to vote “no” on what he calls the largest welfare program ever proposed in Republican history.
Mulvaney said getting the votes for passage is the job of House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority leader Kevin McCarthy .
But Mulvaney warned that the president should be taken at his word that he’s ready to let Obamacare stand if the GOP health-care bill fails and move on to other legislative priorities such as tax cuts for individuals and corporations and updating the nation’s infrastructure systems.
Trump also took to lobbying on Friday, on Twitter:
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed optimism about passage.
“I’m optimistic it’s going to pass. First of all health care and tax reform are two very different things. What I would say health care is a very very complicated issue,” Mnuchin said at a Washington event.
There’s been concern about whether a failure of the Obamacare replacement would make the rest of the Trump’s agenda harder to get through Congress.
But Mnuchin said he’s looking to get “comprehensive” tax reform done on Capitol Hill by the August recess.