Lisa Desjardins:
As we speak, no, they do not. They do not have enough votes in their conference. But they have been negotiating all day with some of those holdouts.
And I want to look at two key groups of holdouts that still remain. The first, these are moderate Republicans, mostly from New York, but one from California, who would like a change in the way state and local taxes are done. They want more of an exemption at a higher level for their states.
Now, there is another group of holdouts on the other end of the ideological spectrum. These are fiscal conservatives, many, if not all of them, from the House Freedom Caucus. They are worried about the red ink in this bill. They want more cuts to Medicaid spending, among other things.
Now, all in all, there’s just a margin of three votes for House Republicans. So, that means really, the margin for error here is very small. And that — see that red box? That’s Thomas Massie of Kentucky. He is already a hard no. That’s one no-vote.
Now, these three in yellow, they were no’s, but today talking to them, they now seem to be leaning yes, and why is that, Geoff? Because of President Trump. He went in that room today, talked to House Republicans, and had a rally. I could hear the cheering from outside the room. He told jokes, sometimes at the expense of his opponents on this bill.
But he really gave them a message which was, don’t mess with Medicaid and pass the bill. No specifics. This is Trump. But he said pass the bill, and it did affect some of those members that I talked to, not all, but some.
