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| US healthcare bill: Blow for Trump as House vote delayed | US healthcare bill: Blow for Trump as House vote delayed |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A vote on President Donald Trump's new health care bill in the House of Representatives has been delayed. | |
| The postponement is a setback for the president who had insisted he would win the numbers to pass it through the lower chamber of Congress on Thursday. | |
| The American Healthcare Act is intended to replace parts of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law. | |
| Repealing and replacing Obamacare was a major plank of Donald Trump's election campaign. | Repealing and replacing Obamacare was a major plank of Donald Trump's election campaign. |
| Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that Republicans would still be meeting on Thursday evening but that the plan now was for a House vote on Friday, following a debate. | |
| A White House official said that "the vote will be in the morning to avoid voting at 3AM... We feel this should be done in the light of day, not in the wee hours of the night and we are confident the bill will pass in the morning". | |
| 'Positive steps' | |
| White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has all week insisted the administration would get the numbers and that the bill would pass, saying there was "no plan B". | |
| Shortly before the delay was announced, he was still talking of "very positive steps" and that the number of supporters for the bill was continuing to rise. | |
| The bill needs 215 votes to pass but ran into opposition mainly from conservative Republicans who believed it did not roll back enough of Mr Obama's Affordable Care Act. | |
| More on the healthcare story | |
| The Republicans could only afford to lose 21 votes from their own ranks, but US media were projecting between 24 and 30 "no votes" on Thursday morning. | |
| The conservative House Freedom Caucus met Mr Trump on Thursday and afterwards said there was "no deal". | |
| With some moderate Republicans also defecting - and all Democrats opposed - it appeared Speaker Paul Ryan could not see the numbers adding up. | |
| The failure to go to a vote is a blow for the president, who has spent the week visiting the Capitol and calling senators on the phone to win over opponents. | |
| House Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows said there were "not enough members to get a yes, but progress is being made". | |
| He played down what he called the "artificial deadline" of Thursday. | |
| Mr Meadows insisted: "We are going to get to the finish line." |