insurance companies now in place under former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

“I can tell you at this point we are trying to get another 30 to 40 votes that are now in the ‘no’ category to ‘yes.’ Once we do that I think we can move forward,” said Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows of North Carolina. The figures quoted by Meadows were startling, as Republicans can lose only 22 votes in the face of united Democratic opposition. A tally by The Associated Press counted at least 31 solid “no” votes. As the evening wore on Thursday, Meadows and his group huddled in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office with top administration officials, including chief strategist Steve Bannon and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

Around the same time, moderate-leaning lawmakers were summoned to the White House to meet with Trump after growing numbers of them started bailing, with the demands from conservatives pushing them even further from being able to support the GOP bill. The legislation would eliminate some of the requirements, taxes and penalties from Obama’s health care law, but also would mean millions would lose their health insurance, older voters would pay higher premiums and Medicaid coverage would shrink for many low-income voters across the country.

Later on Thursday, GOP leaders called an evening meeting of the full House Republican conference to figure out how to resuscitate the bill. Afterward, White House officials had a simple message to a divided House Republican caucus on the bill: “Let’s vote.”

Republicans emerging from the closed-door meeting said they will vote this afternoon, even though leadership is still trying to secure the votes.

Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told lawmakers: “Negotiations are over. We’d like to vote tomorrow, and let’s get this done for the American people.”

As word trickled out earlier in the day that the vote was delayed, one reporter asked the president for a reaction, and Trump just shrugged. White House press secretary Sean Spicer had insisted earlier that Thursday’s vote would happen and the bill would be approved..

The drama unfolded seven years to the day after Obama signed his landmark law, an anniversary GOP leaders meant to celebrate with a vote to undo the divisive legislation. “Obamacare” gave birth to the Tea Party movement and helped Republicans win and keep control of Congress and take the White House.

Instead, the anniversary turned into bitter irony for the GOP, as C-SPAN filled up the time as the House recessed and lawmakers negotiated by playing footage of Obama signing the Affordable Care Act.

“In the final analysis, this bill falls short,” GOP Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state said in a statement Thursday as she became the latest rank-and-file Republican, normally loyal to leadership, to declare her opposition. “The difficulties this bill would create for millions of children were left unaddressed,” she said, citing the unraveling of Medicaid.

The Republican legislation would halt Obama’s tax penalties against people who don’t buy coverage and cut the federal-state Medicaid program for low earners, which the Obama statute had expanded. It would provide tax credits to help people pay medical bills, though generally skimpier than Obama’s statute provides. It also would allow insurers to charge older Americans more and repeal tax boosts the law imposed on high-income people and health industry companies. The measure would also block federal payments to Planned Parenthood for a year, another stumbling block for GOP moderates.

In a danger sign for Republicans, a Quinnipiac University poll found that people disapprove of the GOP legislation by 56 percent to 17 percent, with 26 percent undecided. Trump’s handling of health care was viewed unfavorably by 6 in 10.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi a California Democrat, who as speaker was Obama’s crucial lieutenant in passing the Democratic bill in the first place, couldn’t resist a dig at the GOP disarray. “You may be a great negotiator,” she said of Trump. “Rookie’s error for bringing this up on a day when clearly you’re not ready.”

Obama said in a statement that “America is stronger” because of the current law and said Democrats must make sure “any changes will make our health care system better, not worse, for hardworking Americans.”

Congressional leaders have increasingly put the onus on the president to close the deal, seemingly seeking to ensure he takes ownership of the legislation — and with it, ownership of defeat if that is the outcome.

Yet, unlike Obama and Pelosi when they passed Obamacare, the Republicans had failed to build an outside constituency or coalition to support their bill. Instead, medical professionals, doctors and hospitals — major employers in some districts — the AARP and other influential consumer groups were nearly unanimously opposed. So were outside conservative groups who argued the bill didn’t go far enough.

Moderates were given pause by projections of 24 million Americans losing coverage in a decade and higher out-of-pocket costs for many low-income and older people, as predicted by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. In an updated analysis Thursday, the CBO said late changes to the bill meant to win over reluctant lawmakers would cut beneficial deficit reduction in half, while failing to cover more people. And House members were mindful that the bill, even if passed by the House, faces a tough climb in the Senate.