House GOP leadership, "Young Guns" near showdown on health vote Hoping to show support for the most needy in the health system, Republicans instead ran into another battle with right-leaning groups that have served as steady agitators for a pure conservative approach. Led by the Club for Growth, the groups are urging rank-and-file Republicans to buck their leadership and oppose the bill as a costly boondoggle that does not dismantle the health-care law. "Fiscal conservatives should be squarely focused on repealing Obamacare, not strengthening it by supporting the parts that are politically attractive," Andy Roth, a senior Club for Growth adviser, wrote to lawmakers last week. Heritage Action, the political outfit of the conservative foundation, has also joined in the opposition to the health legislation. No Democrats supported the bill as it emerged from the House Energy and Commerce Committee because the $3 billion tab is paid for by revoking funds from a different piece of the health-care law. That means GOP leaders will need to wrangle almost every vote from their side of the aisle to pass the measure. This has left House GOP leaders scrambling to secure votes in a manner eerily reminiscent of past failures since seizing the majority in 2011. Cantor and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the top vote counter, declined to predict victory at a Wednesday morning news briefing. "This is the right thing to do," Cantor said, suggesting that "helping the sick people" was a conservative goal. We're trying to find solutions here. Cantor's aides have been aggressively promoting conservative outfits that have supported the measure, such as the Wall Street Journal, whose editorial board praised financing this effort by revoking money from a prevention fund reviled by conservatives. Conservatives rebel On numerous occasions, Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has tried to muscle through legislation with all Republican votes, only to see a couple dozen conservatives rebel, fearful of retribution from outside groups that specialize in financing primary challenges in safe GOP districts. Unlike those previous battles testing Boehner's power, this fight measures the clout of his lieutenants. Cantor, 49, and McCarthy, 48, have often been described as tea party leaders in Congress, part of the younger GOP generation that recruited the rabble-rousing class of 2010 that thrust Republicans into the majority. Increasingly, however, the Club for Growth and others have signaled uneasy relations with the younger leaders. In January, they opposed a relief bill for communities hit by Hurricane Sandy, which Cantor had pushed, and the resulting passage of the measure was a legislative victory but a political embarrassment.