On Obamacare, conservatives in familiar fight with GOP leadership

Congressional conservatives who oppose the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare as originally written hope to make history.

More often than not, when the president and party leadership really needs a bill, they get it. The right number of votes comes in at the last minute.

The American Health Care Act, the plan backed by President Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is such a bill. Both think the Republican Party will suffer if it isn't passed in some form.

Conservatives appeared to have defeated the Wall Street bailout in 2008, when it failed to win a majority in the House the first time around. It passed on a second vote and President George W. Bush signed it into law just a few days later.

House Republicans held the vote open for three hours as then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican nicknamed "The Hammer," rammed through a massive deficit-financed Medicare prescription drug benefit over conservative objections.