While the Republican establishment continues their traditional roll of hiding in the weeds, hoping the alligators don’t bite, there are a few principled Conservatives wading through the swamp. Members of the Freedom Caucus are demanding that the House resurrect the 2015 Obamacare repeal bill. The bill passed the House and Senate in 2015, but was vetoed by Obama.
According to the Daily Signal, here’s what the Freedom Caucus is telling their fellow Republicans.
Representative Davidson:
“The commitment for Republicans in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 has been repeal and replace, not repeal and renege, and repeal means that it’s a repeal,” Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, told reporters at a monthly event on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. “There are no Affordable Care Act plans. There’s no ‘if you like your Obamacare you can keep your Obamacare’ in the Republican commitment.”
Representative Labrador:
“Members of Congress are scared all the time,” Rep. Raúl Labrador, R-Idaho, told reporters. “They need to actually just lean in, move forward, and do what they told the American people they were going to do.”
Representative Jordan:
“When you hear about [the Cassidy-Collins bill], when you hear about repair, when you hear about not getting rid of all the taxes, when you hear about not defunding Planned Parenthood, it sort of makes you wonder [if they’re backing away from repeal],” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told The Daily Signal.
Representative Meadows:
“To suggest that we can pass it in 2015 and that it’s more difficult to do it in 2017 makes for a very difficult argument for anyone on why they’ve changed their position and were willing to vote for it then and aren’t willing to vote for it now,” Meadows said.
“Something that Republicans need to be concerned about is if we’re just going to repeal Obamacare with ‘Obamacare lite,’ then it begs the question: Were we just against Obamacare because it was proposed by Democrats? And if that’s our position, then we’re very hypocritical. Then we really were just taking a political position, not a policy-based position,” he said.
Will they be successful? I’m not overly optimistic, but it’s nice to see a few politicians standing by principle and promises; all the while trying to club a few alligators in the process.