Divided House Republicans face painful choice on health vote

WASHINGTON — For the House Republicans who have never served under a Republican president — roughly two-thirds of them — Thursday’s vote on a measure that would repeal former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law is a legislative fantasia, the culmination of seven years of campaign promises impeded by Obama’s veto pen.

[...] weeks of backroom machinations to bring a disparate group of lawmakers on board have left many Republicans with an excruciating choice: pass a bill with an extremely limited constituency that could well wreak havoc with their own voters, and on Republicans’ re-election prospects, or turn it back, leaving President Trump’s agenda deeply wounded.

Should House Republicans reject the measure, the working relationship between the White House and Republican leaders in Congress, still in its infancy, would suffer a powerful blow.

On Wednesday morning, House leaders and the White House continued to scramble for a portion of the roughly 25 more votes they need for passage of their repeal measure — scheduled for a vote on Thursday — working one by one to woo — or cajole — members they think can be moved.

[...] he has begun a last-minute campaign to both sweet talk and vaguely threaten fellow Republicans into supporting the leadership’s hastily written bill, though the measure, which would replace the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance mandate and generous subsidies with tax credits to purchase insurance, has suffered criticism from the right and left.