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In the final hours before a vote on the Republican health care overhaul, powerful conservative groups raced to ensure that their Capitol Hill allies will oppose a bill they see as too weak, despite mounting pressure and threats from President Donald Trump. Influential conservative groups treated Wednesday as a national day of action, flooding phone lines of members of Congress, running ads urging “no” votes in key congressional districts across the country and engaging in last-ditch lobbying efforts with Capitol Hill, demanding changes to a bill that, they argue, doesn’t go far enough in repealing former President Barack Obama’s health care law. (Glueck, 3/22)

Passage of the Obamacare repeal bill would give Republicans an achievement that they’ve pursued since the Reagan years: shrinking federal payments to Medicaid. But some of the conservatives most eager to overhaul the health care program for the poor are threatening to cast no votes because it doesn’t completely dismantle Obamacare. (Kenen, 3/23)

Conservatives are flexing their muscles in Congress as they get closer to securing the “no” votes that would sink the GOP leadership-crafted bill to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law. As of Wednesday afternoon, there were 30 “no” votes on the bill, according to a conservative lawmaker who requested anonymity to discuss private whip counts. With the Rules Committee meeting Wednesday to formulate a rule for a scheduled vote on Thursday, time is running short to secure the needed votes for a majority. (Rahman and McPherson, 3/22)

As members of the House Freedom Caucus elbowed past reporters to enter their Wednesday meeting, a slim backpack-toting man slipped in almost unnoticed. He was Michael Cannon, director of health-policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, and he was offering some advice on why Republicans’ American Health Care Act needed to die. A chart-packed three-page memo, given to every member, warned that passage would mean the GOP would absorb “blame for the ongoing collapse” of Affordable Care Act exchanges, split the right (“the left will be motivated”) and “risk single-payer” after Republicans lost. (Weigel, 3/22)

The conservative Koch network is promising to spend millions of dollars to defeat the health care overhaul backed by President Donald Trump and top House Republicans. The network’s leading organizations, Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners, announced late Wednesday the creation of a special fund to support House members who vote against the health care bill. (Peoples, 3/22)