I think that you are forgetting that every member of the Freedom Caucus has a longstanding voting record on conservative issues. They have earned their designation as “hard core conservatives” not by how they would have voted on this one bill but on how they actually have voted for years.
Since President Trump asked Speaker Ryan to pull the bill, we don’t know which members or how many members of the Freedom Caucus would have actually voted against it in a roll call vote.
Here’s some of the members of the Freedom Caucus and their conservative voting record from Conservative Review:
Dave Palmer-AL 100%
Dave Bratt- VA 100%
Justin Amash-MI 97%
Jim Bridenstein-OK 96%
Jeff Duncan-SC 96%
Jim Jordan-OH 96%
Tom Massie-KY 94%
Ken Buck-CO 94%
Raul Labrador-ID 93%
Trent Franks-AZ 90%
The Freedom Caucus are the good guys.
How longstanding is ‘longstanding’?
If it’s within the last 8 years, then it would be easy to rack up an amazingly positive rating by making completely meaningless votes.
After the last few years, I’ve come to believe in conservative ratings a whole lot less than before.
I really don’t have particularly strong feelings regarding passage of Ryancare or lack thereof. I hated the bill on the surface, but I also hated how people reacted to it. No improvements, no alternatives, no true negotiations, just constant no, no, no.
It should have been possible to scupper or at least correct this bill without having turned the CFC into impossible-to-please or completely-bought-off.
Now instead of having a voice in future bills, they’ll be ignored.