Republican plans to quickly repeal Obamacare could be thwarted by members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who are threatening to block passage of the budget resolution that will allow an easy repeal the health law over fears that it might keep Obamacare taxes in place.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told the Washington Examiner he is unlikely to support the resolution poised for passage in the Senate next week because of his worries about Obamacare taxes. He said his members could block it in the House by using their roughly 40-member caucus to deny the GOP majority that’s needed to pass it.
“Are we willing? I think the answer is yes,” Meadows told the Washington Examiner.
The HFC holds significant leverage on the issue because Republicans only have a 23-seat majority. If more than 23 Republicans vote against the resolution, it would fail to pass the House, since all Democrats are expected to oppose it.
That would create a major speed bump for Republicans who are hoping to repeal Obamacare as soon as possible. Members of the HFC will meet Monday night to decide whether to back the resolution.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Thursday he is “not concerned” about the HFC because he believes rank-and-file lawmakers understand the budget resolution is merely a shell vehicle that will enable the Senate to repeal Obamacare later this year with just 51 votes, instead of the usual 60 votes.
“I believe our members understand exactly why we’re doing what we’re doing,” said Ryan. “And this is a repeal resolution, which is meant to get us the reconciliation instructions we need to do our job to keep our promise. Our members get that.”
Ryan said GOP lawmakers can address budgetary concerns in the fiscal 2018 budget, which the House will begin working on in a few months. “They realize that a more comprehensive, complete budget will be coming like it always does per the way our budget process works,” he said.
Nonetheless, Meadows said he’s worried about language that appears to set up the possibility of keeping hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Obamacare taxes in place. A section of the resolution creates a “reserve fund” for healthcare legislation that calls on healthcare legislation passed pursuant to the budget resolution to be legislation that “would not increase the deficit.”
Meadows indicated that he fears that language could lead to legislation that keeps Obamacare taxes right where they are, since removing them would increase the deficit.
“Having a reserve fund that potentially becomes $500 billion dollars would indicate that the taxes are going to remain,” Meadows said. “That gets spent on something and it doesn’t have to be healthcare and that’s my concern.”
There are other conservative complaints about the resolution, including that it doesn’t call for a balanced budget. Here again, GOP leaders say the resolution is just a shell that doesn’t reflect Republican goals for the budget.
But Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has said he’s holding out for language that balances the budget.
“Our first order of business will be a budget that never balances,” said Paul. “A budget that adds $9.7 trillion to the debt.”
Meadows said Paul “made a very compelling case,” but he is not sure how many HFC members will vote against the resolution. They are in discussions with GOP leaders, Meadows said.
“We have raised it as a concern but not a line in the sand at this point,” Meadows said.
Meanwhile, other conservatives are not lining up with the HFC. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said his goal, and that of almost all Republican lawmakers, is to repeal Obamacare. King plans to vote for the budget resolution, he told the Washington Examiner.
The HFC could be positioning itself to have a larger say in the repeal measure that both the Senate and House will write once the shell-legislation passes both chambers. Meadows said he wants that legislation to include a replacement to Obamacare, which is not what the GOP is planning.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence said the legislation would include a “framework” for a replacement, but GOP leaders have not indicated when real proposals would be taken up.
