Paul Ryan threw Republican senators under the bus on their healthcare failure

paul ryan
paul ryan

(Paul Ryan.Yuri Gripas/Reuters)

House Speaker Paul Ryan is blaming Senate Republicans for the party's failure to pass new healthcare legislation, saying he hopes House Republicans' "friends in the Senate can figure out how they can get a bill passed."

Ryan addressed the issue at a press conference Tuesday morning, the day after two GOP senators tipped the balance against the bill, effectively killing it.

Ryan, who led the effort to pass the House version of the healthcare bill, said the House had fulfilled its responsibilities and the effort to replace President Barack Obama's signature legislation had come to rest fully on the Senate.

"We've done this in the House — we passed our simultaneous repeal-and-replace bill," Ryan said. "We think that's the solution, we think that's the best way to go, and so we're just gonna have to wait and hope that our friends in the Senate can figure out how they can get a bill passed, get it into conference, or whatever, and get something passed."

Ryan said he and his House colleagues were "proud" of the House bill, known as the American Health Care Act, which Republican lawmakers in the Senate have rewritten in an attempt to gain support both from conservatives who want a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act and more moderate members who oppose deep cuts to Medicaid. The AHCA received very low approval ratings in polls.

"We passed a bill that we think is sufficient to addressing the real problem, to keeping our promise," Ryan said.

Watch a clip of the press briefing here:

Ryan: House already passed repeal and replace https://t.co/xtyAWcIVeP

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