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politics and politicians Title: Freedom Caucus holds Congress captive At the end of the long day, the alliance of conservative ideologues that once shut down the government over President Barack Obama’s health-care law could not find the will to repeal it. Since the tea-party wave of 2010 that swept House Republicans into power, a raucous, intransigent and loosely aligned group of lawmakers known as the House Freedom Caucus — most from heavily Republican districts — has often landed a punch to its own party’s face. The Republican leadership’s decision Friday, in the face of certain defeat, to pull the bill that would have repealed the Affordable Care Act was a return to form, handing an immense defeat to President Donald Trump and embarrassing Speaker Paul Ryan in his own House. It also challenged the veracity of Republicans’ long-held claims that a Republican president was all they needed to get big things accomplished. The most important question for Republicans is whether the members of the Freedom Caucus will find themselves newly emboldened in ways that may bring the new president more defeats — or whether Ryan will do what former Speaker John A. Boehner could not, and find a way to shred their influence for good. “If you are defined by your opposition to leadership, it’s hard to be part of a governing coalition,” said Alex Conant, a onetime aide to Sen. Marco Rubio, R- Fla., who was once a tea-party star. “Their opposition to Trump’s health-care bill should surprise nobody who’s paid attention for the last six years. Even the world’s best negotiator can’t make a deal with someone who never compromises.” The Freedom Caucus has never been about compromise. In 2011, it picked a huge, costly fight over Planned Parenthood. In 2013, it orchestrated a government shutdown over funding for the health-care law. In its most striking move, it deposed Boehner in 2015. The common thread: It has continuously been an adversary of legislation itself. But after years of opposing power — both in the White House, which was occupied by a Democrat, and in the leadership of their own party — the conservatives were offered a chance to negotiate directly with the president and his budget director, a former Freedom Caucus member, over the bill to replace the Affordable Care Act. The members pushed and pushed Trump to the far right edges of policy, just as they have done for years on other bills. But they still could not get to “yes,” and therefore became part owners of the expansive health law they were trying to undo. “They made the perfect the enemy of the good,” said Rep. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. “I don’t know how they can go back home and tell people they voted to keep Obamacare, voted to keep funding Planned Parenthood.” Indeed, members of the Freedom Caucus — which is supported by outside conservative groups — have often claimed the mantle of pure conservatism, but their tactics have been seen by many in their party as uniformly counterproductive. Time after time, they undermined Republican leaders’ efforts to secure wins for the conservative cause by overreaching and demanding the impossible. They have anointed Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina as their leader and principal spokesman. But they occasionally get help from three senators sympathetic to their cause: Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah. At critical times, House conservatives have forced their party to make deals with Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, an idea anathema to most Republicans, who would seethe. This time, by negotiating with Trump on the complex issue of health care, a measure whose complexity he did not seem to fully grasp, they moved an already contentious bill further and further to the right, eliminating too many benefits to keep moderate and other conservative members on board. Even Trump was said to be taken aback by their attempts to remove things Republicans have long promised to keep, like health-insurance benefits for children up to 26 years old. Given that the House and Senate majorities were built on a promise to repeal and replace Obama’s signature health-care law, many lawmakers fear electoral repercussions. “It is painfully ironic that members from safe, conservative congressional districts who can’t ever quite seem to get to ‘yes’ make it harder to enact good, conservative public policy like repealing Obamacare,” said Michael Steel, a Republican strategist and former aide to Boehner. This seemed lost on many Freedom Caucus members Friday. “Part of the legislative process is working with people who have different ideas,” said Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich. “This process from the beginning wasn’t designed to do that.” Now, health care has become such a partisan issue that voters seem to have little expectation that their elected officials will do much to solve the problem. “I believe we should have more attention paid to the centrists in both parties,” said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., one of the early moderate defectors of the bill. “Instead of showing all this attention to three or four people who never vote for anything, let’s do an American health plan, not a Republican or Democrat one.” Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: Gatlin (#0)
What a great article. I thrilled to every act of this brave band of patriots in the Freedom Caucus who love America.
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