With both the House and Senate poised this week to deal with some form of repealing the Affordable Care Act (the official name for Obamacare), the White House is unclear as to just which form it favors.
Republican House members and senators favor either outright repeal of the ACA, with a replacement package to come later, or amending and trying to proceed with the American Health Care Act (the Trump-backed measure that has narrowly passed the House but held up in the Senate because of questions by Republican lawmakers).
At the White House last Tuesday, Newsmax noted that Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., has introduced a proposal for complete repeal of Obamacare and that there was strong support for it among his fellow House Republicans.
Was there any possibility, we asked Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, that the administration would at least sit down and join the cause for a direct repeal before it pursued any new kind of healthcare legislation?
"I think," Sanders replied, "We're certainly open to having conversations on all fronts and the best way to move this process forward."
The following day, however, Marc Short, the President's top liaison with Congress, strongly signaled that the administration favored amending the AHCA rather than spending any political capital on Biggs' direct repeal bill.
"Again, I don't want to really differentiate those," Short told us, "because I think the president is trying to say, 'We need to get on the bill to amend it.' And if you're not willing to do that, you're basically saying there's no problem here."
"And so, yes, (Senate Majority Leader Mitch) McConnell has said the first bill he'll bring up is the 2015 bill (the last direct repeal measure) and that's the first step. But there will be an open amendment process to continue to bring in a replacement effort, too," he added.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now
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