Republican Party

It was 17 yesterday morning, 25 by the close of the day, and now 27 Republicans are opposing (or leaning strongly against) the GOP healthcare plan.

It appears President Trump's "threats" yesterday - which Paul Ryan dismissed using the "he was just kidding" excuse - appears to have failed.

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The 27 House Republicans who are against or leaning against the House GOP bill

With just two days left until the House is set to vote this Thursday on the critical Obamacare repeal bill, where an adverse vote could lead to the biggest blow to Trump's domestic policy agenda yet, House Republican leaders on Monday night released the latest set of changes to their ObamaCare replacement bill, as they scrambled to win more votes for the legislation. 

This morning President Trump hosted a brief media appearance in the oval office, along with a group of conservative lawmakers, to, among other things, declare his "100% support" for the GOP's Obamacare replacement plan.  During the discussion, Trump indicated that concessions had been made to the GOP's legislation to attract the support of several conservative lawmakers and guarantee the bill's passage when it come up for a vote in the House.  And, in a not so surprising twist, Trump also took a couple of shots at the media.

As previously noted, while some traders on Wall Street were disappointed by the lack of specifics in Trump's speech, many others - and certainly Trump's group of core, faithful supporters - praised his "milder", more conciliatory tone, in a speech that was among his most "presidential" public addresses to date.

Below, courtesy of The Hill, are five of the key takeaways political pundits were left from Trump's address to Congress.

Trump’s speech was conventional, a relief to the GOP

Several days after Goldman Sachs explained in theory why hopes for a quick "repeal and replace" of Obamacare are now extinguished, and even "repair and rename" is looking bad, overnight state governors meeting in Washington got the bad news in practice, when a presentation from Avalere Health and McKinsey warned that the policies proposed by Republican congressional leaders to repeal and replace Obama's signature healthcare law would lead millions of people to lose their health coverage, while states lose billions in Federal funding.