Future of revamped health care bill remains dubious

More Americans would rather know their healthcare is safe along with long-term jobs.

The White House, which is trying to force another vote on an Obamacare repeal, seems desperate to either win some of Trump's priorities in a deal next week, or force a government shutdown that it can blame on Democrats. The law enabled 20 million Americans to obtain insurance, many through an expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor. "Let's do what people agree with now".

Mick Mulvaney, Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget, said that funding for the border wall on the United States' border with Mexico will need to be a part of the deal to keep the government open. Now the White House and House GOP leaders are pushing hard to come up with a new bill that can pass before his first 100 days are up.

The last government shutdown was in October, 2013, and was widely blamed on conservative Republicans in the House, with a major assist from Senator Ted Cruz, who demanded that Obamacare had to be defunded, a ludicrous strategy given that Barack Obama was President.

A spending bill and a threatened government shutdown will greet Congress when it returns from a recess next week. Trump's presidency is approaching the symbolic 100-day mark, but his GOP allies in Congress have been tempering expectations that the president would emerge as a big victor. It will take 60 votes in the Senate to advance a bill in the chamber for final approval.

For several months he said Mexico would pay for the construction project, but after taking office he included line items in his initial proposed federal budget to cover repairs to sections of the existing border fortifications and some new construction.

GOP leaders on Capitol Hill are eager to avert a shutdown, and the slow pace may make it necessary to enact another temporary spending bill to avert a shutdown next weekend.

"While we do not expect a lapse, prudence and common sense require routine assessments to be made", Mulvaney said in a statement to the agencies.

During a news conference Thursday, Trump said "we're doing very well on health care", that the legislative effort is "evolving" and that "there was never a give-up". Trump has asked Congress to fund a border wall, boost spending on ongoing defense operations and to assist his Justice Department in enforcing federal immigration laws against sanctuary cities. And because much (although not all) of this resistance is coming from his left, why not offer Democrats something they really, really want in exchange? In an interview earlier this month with RealClearPoltiics, Mulvaney said the administration had already expressed its spending objectives, including these polarizing priorities, to Congress.

Trump's administration has indicated that the wall is a high priority and that they will do what they can to fund it. Republicans are deeply divided from this White House, which is adding to a climate that is increasingly favoring Democrats in 2018.

Trump and the military are again seeking a spending increase in a catchall bill for the rest of the year.

He added that they had "finally boiled this negotiation down to" the border wall and ObamaCare's cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments.

"We're a great opposition party", he said.

"This is the first real test of whether or not the Democrats, specifically in the Senate, are interested in negotiating, interested in compromising", Mulvaney said in remarks at an Institute of International Finance event.

"Everything had been moving smoothly until the administration moved in with a heavy hand", Matt House, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, told CNBC.

"Over this weekend is the test to see whether Democrats will ... work with the Republicans or if they decide to shut the government down, because you have eight or nine Democrats who can't vote for a short, short continuing resolution".