Analysis: Health care vote split Iowa Republicans

Their hands finally forced, we learned this past week where Iowa's Congressional Republicans stood on their party's plan to dismantle the Democrats' health care reforms.

Even if they never got to cast their vote.

Iowa's three Republican U.S. House members never went officially on the House record because GOP legislation to repeal much of the health care reform implemented by Democrats under former President Barack Obama was pulled by leaders Friday just minutes before a planned vote.

But the Iowa delegation had stated their intentions earlier in the week.

Rod Blum, from the Eastern Iowa 1st District, and David Young, from the central Iowa 3rd District, said they planned to vote against the proposal, placing them among the roughly two dozen House Republicans to make such a pledge.

Steve King, from the western Iowa 4th District, said he planned to vote in support of the legislation on the promise of alterations to be made in the Senate.

Each vote is interesting in its own right, and worth exploring.

Blum had been noncommital regarding his vote until Tuesday, just days before Friday's debate in the U.S. House. Blum said he opposed the GOP plan because it did not sufficiently drive down health care costs.

Blum is in his second term representing a district that has roughly 20,000 more Democratic voters than Republicans. Perhaps his vote was motivated by surviving re-election in such a district.

However, Blum also is a member of the House 'Freedom Caucus,” which consists of some of the House's most conservative members. Many members of that group had said they were opposed to the GOP health care bill.

Young also kept his vote close to the vest until revealing his feelings on Wednesday.

Young represents a district that has about 10,000 more Republican voters than Democrats. In a statement, Young called the GOP bill 'a very good start” but said the bill 'does not yet get it right.”

Young's statement seemed to indicate a willingness to support an updated bill when he added, 'This conversation is not over.”

King announced in a live video posted on Facebook that he would support the bill after receiving assurances that, eventually, it will strip mandated benefits for insurance coverage.

King represents Iowa's most conservative district. Iowa's 4th Congressional has about 40,000 more Republican voters than Democrats.

It was an interesting week for congressional Republicans as they inched closer to taking significant action on health care reform but ultimately bailed. After spending much of the past eight years and two national elections promising to repeal Obama's health care law, Republicans in Washington have been dealing with the reality of the significant effort it will take to make that happen without upsetting their constituents.

Republican leaders at the very top - President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan - spent the week encouraging Republicans to support the legislation. National media reports said Trump threatened to help promote primary election candidates against Republicans who declined to support the GOP health care bill.

But as Republican efforts to demolish Obama's health care law intensified, the law grew increasingly popular in public opinion polls. The law - properly known as the Affordable Care Act and more commonly known as Obamacare - started March with its best-ever average on Real Clear Politics at plus-5.3.

So Republicans are left to deal with their conservative base that still wants the law ripped off the books, but also growing support from others - including some Republicans - who want it preserved.

All of this helped to make this week's House GOP vote-wrangling so interesting.

And it never even made it to the Senate.

Erin Murphy covers Iowa politics and state government for Lee Enterprises. His email address is erin.murphy@lee.net.