Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on Sunday said that he has “no idea” why Republicans couldn’t get enough members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus to support their bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.
“I have no idea,” Mulvaney said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” when asked why Republicans were unable to secure enough support from the House Freedom Caucus for their long-promised repeal bill.
He denied that President Donald Trump blames House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) for the bill’s failure.
“Never once have I seen him blame Paul Ryan,” Mulvaney said. “The people who are to blame are the people who would not vote yes.”
Mulvaney was one of the top administration officials working to pass House Republicans’ bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. The bill lacked support from both moderate and conservative Republicans and was pulled on Friday less than an hour before it was scheduled to go to the floor for a vote.
“We haven’t been able to change Washington in the first 65 days,” Mulvaney said. “I know the Freedom Caucus. I helped found it. I never thought it would come to this.”
Mulvaney said that as a member of the caucus he would have voted for the bill “without reservation.”
“The one thing we learned this week was that Washington was a lot more broken than President Trump thought that it was,” he said. “Is the Republican Party capable of governing? I know the man in the White House is capable of governing.”
Mulvaney said that Trump “absolutely no stone left unturned” while seeking support for the bill but is moving on to other areas of policy.
“There’s a lot to be done,” he said. “The President wants to do a lot of things.”
