House GOP will head home for two-week break without a health-care deal

After a flurry of negotiations this week, the Republican "Zombie TrumpCare" bill is "dead, killed off by House Republicans who never actually read the legislation — because in fact, it never actually existed," The New York Times reports. House Republicans leave for a two-week Easter break on Thursday afternoon, and despite a last-ditch push by Vice President Mike Pence to sell a new set of proposals to hard-right Republicans this week, there was no breakthrough.

"There's no suggestion we should be changing our flights," Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) told The Associated Press. "We're going home ... without a deal." House Republicans are still considering an emergency House Rules Committee meeting on Thursday, Politico reports, but expectations are very low and there is no health-care vote on the schedule. On Wednesday night, Republicans and conservative groups were mostly blaming other GOP factions for the new failure to come up with a workable compromise. The first bill, the American Health Care Act, was pulled before a vote it was certain to lose. The health-care fight has highlighted fractures in the GOP coalition, but it has apparently given a sizable boost to the law the AHCA seeks to replace, the Affordable Care Act, which is hitting new highs in opinion polls.

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