White House officials are steering themselves clear of commenting on the impending health care vote as they "know it could be ugly".
An insider has suggested Donald Trump and the administration are keeping quiet on the future of health care as both Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune take on the bulk of the ugliness. Speaking to Politico, an unnamed source close to the White House suggested the Trump administration is in no rush to take the heat off of either Johnson or Thune.
They said, "The White House does understand how important this issue is. They want to find some fixes. But they know it could be ugly to get where they need to, and they’re letting [Speaker Mike] Johnson and [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune handle a lot of the ugliness."
But the White House doing nothing to deflect from the growing health care woes is "pretty dumb" according to a Republican health care strategist. Joel White, president of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage, said, "Doing nothing is ceding the issue. And politically, that’s pretty dumb."
"It’s smart for Republicans to say, ‘We care about this too. We think the situation is a mess, and we’re trying to fix it.’ And the message, I think, is a winner when you say, ‘We want to help you, voter, consumer — not big company.’" Despite the lack of action, there is, according to one senior White House official, an "awareness that something has to happen".
Another unnamed source has suggested the disagreements in the House and Senate on health care has almost certainly spread to the White House also.
The insider claimed, "There’s no doubt about it, if there’s disagreement on Capitol Hill, you got to believe there’s disagreement at the White House. You definitely have the hard line approach, I would probably say, coming from the OMB side of things."
"I think they would actually be fine with the ACA subsidies running out, because they’re true believers the program sucks, there’s fraud, there’s this, there’s that. I don’t necessarily think the president’s there. The president is inclined to maybe even give a one-year extension, or better off for everyone, try to pass a health care bill."