Heavyweight conservative group the Club for Growth is targeting House Republicans who don’t support the latest effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, unveiling ads urging them to back the package.
So far the Club is only naming two, Reps. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., but said eight more will be identified and see spots airing in their districts starting Thursday.
Both are members of the Tuesday Group, a caucus of centrist House Republicans that has frequently been at odds with the conservative Freedom Caucus
In the 30-second ad a female narrator says, “He led a movement to make us great again. Now he’s doing what he said: Working with conservatives on a better bill that lowers premiums, cuts taxes, and repeals Obamacare,” as the viewer sees images of President Trump.
As the narrator says “conservatives are working to get it done,” viewers are shown an image of Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C. “A big win for American families, and our economy; tell Congress ‘support Trump’s plan to get rid of Obamacare,'” she says before Trump exclaims: “We gotta get it done.”
Collins is a close Trump ally.
“The Club for Growth supported the deal for state waivers of costly Obamacare regulations that was facilitated last week by Vice President Pence, but moderates blocked that progress,” Club for Growth president David McIntosh told reporters during a conference call Monday.
Even with the changes the White House negotiated with holdout members before they adjourned Thursday for a two-week recess, “it’s not perfect, but at this point we need to get this done,” McIntosh said.
The Club for Growth is spending $1 million to run the ad on television and the web. They began airing in Collins’ and Kinzingers’ districts Monday.
McIntosh said he is confident that over the next two weeks Republicans will hear from their constituents what he is hearing from Club for Growth members, “You guys gotta show you can get something done.”
McIntosh said voters want them to finish with healthcare before moving on to other priorities, such as revamping the tax code.
Collins, Kinzinger and other Tuesday Group members will have to ask themselves: “Do I really want to hold up this bill so a state that wants to make up its own insurance regulations can’t do that?” McIntosh said. “They have to decide if they want be the roadblock that prevents the GOP from delivering on its promise to repeal Obamacare.”
Collins has very publicly blamed Freedom Caucus members for moving the repeal and replace package so far to the right that Tuesday Group members can no longer support it.
“A vast majority of us were ready to vote yes, but one faction of the party made it impossible: the House Freedom Caucus,” Kinzinger wrote in a March 31 op-ed. He added that Trump gave the caucus reductions in essential health benefits but said the concessions weren’t enough for the caucus to “on-board, as usual.”
McIntosh said he doesn’t know whether the bill will come to the floor when the House reconvenes or leadership will conclude that the votes aren’t there to pass it.
“I don’t know if they’ll admit defeat” if they can’t get it done shortly after returning from recess, he said. “But they might show regret in a year-and-a-half” if they don’t, he said, adding voters are likely to toss control of Congress to the Democrats in 2018 if Republicans do not manage to repeal Obamacare.
The potential deal with conservatives would allow states to opt out of requiring insurers to offer certain benefits now mandated by the Affordable Care Act. Conservatives argue that relief from these mandates will help lower insurance premiums while centrists counter that it will price older customers and those with pre-existing conditions out of the market.
