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politics and politicians Title: Republican moderates reject talks with House Freedom Caucus WASHINGTON — Moderate House Republicans have apparently rejected overtures from the conservative House Freedom Caucus — the most critical group in sinking the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare — which was seeking talks about whether a compromise repeal plan is possible. Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y. — one of President Trump's closest allies in the House — told reporters Thursday that the moderates' caucus, called the Tuesday Group, met and "unequivocally" decided not to meet with the Freedom Caucus. “It’s not changing the opinions in our conference. We’ve moved on,” Collins said. “We have to move on to tax reform. My own hope is they will be more pliable for tax reform having the conference suffering this defeat on health care reform. I truly believe health care has moved on and won’t be dealt with until 2019, if then.” “I am not negotiating with anyone. I’ve seen stories that there are discussions about certain negotiations between the Tuesday Group and the Freedom Caucus. That’s not the case,” Rep. Charlie Dent, a co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, said Wednesday morning on CNN. “Do I talk to other members? Absolutely. Am I negotiating with anyone about the bill that was just put aside? No.” Dent said it was time to bring Democrats to the table and work on a bipartisan solution to fix Obamacare rather than repeal it entirely. The Freedom Caucus is a group of around 30 hardline conservatives who threatened en bloc to vote against the legislation because they felt it didn’t go far enough. Their demands — a couple of which were met in last-minute negotiations but still didn’t sway most of them — proved a bridge too far for a handful of moderates. With no Democrats backing the bill, Republicans could only lose about 20 votes, so House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Trump decided to pull the bill Friday afternoon instead of see it defeated on the floor. But this week, leadership and the Freedom Caucus have exhibited a new willingness to reopen negotiations. On Tuesday, Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told USA TODAY that he was working with Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., a co-chairman of Tuesday Group, to set up a meeting between the two groups who had been against the bill. “To actually just talk one-on-one with no leadership, no anybody, other than just members in the room and say ‘OK what are your objections? What gets you to ‘yes’ from a more moderate side of our spectrum? What gets us to yes from a more conservative side of the spectrum?” Meadows said. “We feel like if we can get those two then everybody in between will get to a yes. We should have been doing this all along.” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows leaves a closed-door strategy session with House Speaker Paul Ryan and others on Capitol Hill on March 28, 2017. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP) MacArthur’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, Freedom Caucus member Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said it was incumbent on everyone in the party to go back to the drawing board. “I think every group — Freedom Caucus, Tuesday Group, every group — has a responsibility to write down their fundamental convictions and say here is a proposal that would get us to yes. We have that responsibility,” Franks told reporters at the Capitol. When asked whether people were ignoring the Freedom Caucus because they were angry at how the group had handled the negotiation, Franks responded, “I don’t know. You know they can do the math,” referring to the power the group wields because of the number of members. The Freedom Caucus has also lost the support of another key ally this week: the president. The group had gone almost entirely around House leadership and negotiated directly with Trump ahead of the bill being pulled. Meadows was an early supporter of Trump’s and campaigned with him during the election. The caucus and Trump also share a similar base of supporters, but after the failure of the bill Trump seemed to have lost his patience. He tweeted a couple jabs over the weekend and on Monday, and on Thursday he threatened Freedom Caucus members in the 2018 election. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread |
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