“No new position tonight. Our position is the same,” caucus chairman Mark Meadows told reporters following a closed-door meeting of his caucus. “We believe we need to do a clean repeal bill.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan “is going to need a lot of Democrat votes to pass what would be the largest welfare program sponsored in the history of the Republican Party,” said Rep. Mo Brooks, a Republican from Alabama.
After the meeting that stretched into two hours Tuesday night and included guest appearances by House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions and White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, Freedom Caucus members emerged unfazed by the very public endorsement President Donald Trump had given the House bill in the hours before.
“When the administration has spoken to our members in private meetings, the discussions have been more about finding ways to move forward together and not about take it or leave it,” said Rep. Justin Amash, a Republican from Michigan, who also told reporters he ordered “The Art of the Deal” during the meeting.
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