Donald Trump humiliated over health bill

President Donald Trump and Republican leaders have scrapped their bill to repeal 'Obamacare' in a humiliating failure for the US president, when it became clear his flagship manifesto pledge would nosedive in the House of Representatives.

President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence seen as House Speaker Paul Ryan, above, announces withdrawal of the bill. Picture: Getty

Democrats said Americans could “breathe a sigh of relief” after seven years of non-stop railing against former president Barack Obama’s affordable care act health care law.

But Trump said Obamacare was imploding “and soon will explode”.

Thwarted by two factions of fellow Republicans, from the centre and far right, House speaker Paul Ryan said Obama’s health care law, the Republicans’ top target in the new Trump administration, would remain in place “for the foreseeable future”.

It was a stunning defeat for the new president after he had demanded House Republicans delay no longer and vote on the legislation on Friday, pass or fail.

But his gamble failed and instead Trump, who campaigned as a master deal-maker and claimed that he alone could fix America’s health care system, saw his ultimatum rejected by Republicans who made clear they answer to their own voters, not to the president.

At the White House, a dejected but still combative Trump said he had “never said repeal and replace it in 64 days”, though he had repeatedly shouted during the presidential campaign that it was going down “immediately”.

The bill was withdrawn just minutes before the vote was to take place and politicians said there were no plans to revisit the issue.

Republicans will try to move ahead on other agenda items, including overhauling the tax code, though the failure on the health bill can only make whatever comes next immeasurably harder.

Trump pinned the blame on Democrats, saying: “With no Democrat support we couldn’t quite get there. We learned about loyalty, we learned a lot about the vote-getting process.”

The Obama law was approved in 2010 with no Republican votes.

Despite reports of backbiting from administration officials toward Ryan, Trump said: “I like Speaker Ryan. I think Paul really worked hard.”

Ryan told reporters: “We came really close today but we came up short. This is a disappointing day for us.”

He said Trump had “really been fantastic”, but when asked how Republicans could face voters after their failure to make good on years of promises, he quietly said: “It’s a really good question. I wish I had a better answer for you.”

In the autumn, Republicans used the issue to gain and keep control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives.

During previous years, they cast dozens of votes to repeal Obama’s law in full or in part, but when they finally got the chance to pass a repeal version that actually had a chance to become law, they could not deliver.