Why I Left the Freedom Caucus

For eight years, I have joined my colleagues in the fight to repeal and replace the train wreck that is Obamacare. This was the call heard around the nation for years, particularly leading up to President Trump's historic victory. We promised the American people that if they supported us, help would be on the way. As a conservative, I believe that the federal government should have a limited role in our personal lives, including health care. As a cancer patient, I knew the importance of getting this bill right and replacing Obamacare with a patient-centered solution that also ensures access to care for the nearly 30 percent of Americans with pre-existing conditions. But as the American Health Care Act teetered on the edge of a cliff, it was the Freedom Caucus that helped give it the final push.

A little history. The truth is that while most Americans had no idea what the Freedom Caucus was until a few weeks ago when it became the official opposition to the Obamacare replacement plan, this group has quietly existed for a while. Two years ago, the most conservative members of the House – myself included – banded together to force leadership to give conservatives a seat at the table when negotiating major legislation. Our goal was to advance the most conservative agenda possible in Congress and give a voice to our constituents who felt that they did not have one. Until this year, we faced a president who opposed everything we stood for, and a leadership that excluded us. This year, that changed.

From start to finish, Speaker Ryan has gone out of his way to be inclusive, and President Trump literally brought us to the table, listening to our concerns, agreeing to some of the group’s demands, and changing the bill to be more conservative. The caucus asked for major concessions, and the bill was changed to include some of them. At a meeting at the White House, the president even agreed to change what is considered Essential Health Benefits by amending the bill to allow states to make that decision. But the goalpost kept moving further and further down the field. It became clear to me that no matter what was included and changed, the answer would still be no. That’s why I left the Freedom Caucus even though I agree with them on most issues and consider them my friends. The bill wasn’t perfect – no piece of legislation is – but it was absolutely far better than Obamacare. Like it or not, the reality of the makeup of the House and Senate is that if you demand a purist repeal of Obamacare, it will die on the floor. This was our chance to make meaningful change.

The Freedom Caucus served as a check on a liberal administration and former House leadership that repeatedly compromised with Democrats. Times have changed. Republicans – mostly conservatives – control it all now. It is our time to lead. It is our time to unify and deliver on the promises that we made for years. Those calling for otherwise have been in Washington long enough to know that you do not get everything you want in any bill.

We can no longer allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. The American Health Care Act included major conservative reforms. It would have repealed the individual and employer mandates, reduced taxes, expanded health savings accounts, ensured access to coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, and allowed young adults to stay on their parents’ plan. It would have also defunded Planned Parenthood. Overall, this bill would have accomplished much of what we have been seeking all along, and the administration had committed to push forward what couldn’t be done in this bill separately.

I want to be part of the conservative majority that delivers solutions. Americans voted for solutions. Americans voted for help to make their lives easier and more affordable. We must give them the solutions they demand, that they deserve, and that we promised. I am encouraged that conversations have restarted within the House Republican Conference, and I hope that we can all get on the same page in the hymnal and produce a bill that delivers on our promise to the American people.

Thank you for referencing that article Kaslin. As usual, please note that the following critique is directed at the article and not at you.

"Like it or not, the reality of the makeup of the House and Senate is that if you demand a purist repeal of Obamacare, it will die on the floor."

FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument

With all due respect to Congressman Ted Poe, please consider the following.

While I agree with everything that Poe said about Freedom Caucus, he gave no indication in his article that he, or anybody in the legislative and executive branches, understands or respects the constitutional reality that the states states have never expressly constitutionally delegated to the feds the specific power to regulate, tax and spend in the name of INTRAstate healthcare.

After all, all that it takes to kill Obamacare is to argue the following clarifications of Congress’s limited powers by previous generations of state sovereignty-respecting Supreme Court justices.

“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
"State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphases added]." -Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.

Trumpcare must kill Obamacare in the following way imo.

Patriots need to support Trump and Sessions in working with corrupt Congress to do the following. The Trump Administration must go through the books and remove all laws, particularly healthcare-related laws, that Congress cannot reasonably justify under its Commerce Clause powers (1.8.3), unconstitutional federal interference in intrastate commerce arguably helping to raise healthcare costs.

And if Trumpcare requires new constitutional powers then patriots must support Trump in working with the states and Congress to ratify a Trumpcare amendment to the Constitution, the amendment giving the feds specific new powers to regulate intrastate healthcare.

Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp!

Remember in November ’18 !

Since Trump entered the ’16 presidential race too late for patriots to make sure that there were state sovereignty-respecting candidates on the primary ballots, patriots need make sure that such candidates are on the ’18 primary ballots so that they can be elected to support Trump in draining the unconstitutionally big federal government swamp.

Such a Congress will also be able to finish draining the swamp with respect to getting the remaining state sovereignty-ignoring, activist Supreme Court justices off of the bench.

In fact, if Justice Gorsuch is approved but turns out to be a liberal Trojan Horse then we will need 67 patriot senators to remove a House-impeached Gorsuch from office.

~~Noting that the primaries start in Iowa and New Hampshire in February ‘18, patriots need to challenge candidates for federal office in the following way.~~

While I Googled the primary information above concerning Iowa and New Hampshire, FReeper iowamark brought to my attention that the February primaries for these states apply only to presidential election years. And after doing some more scratching, since primary dates for most states for 2018 elections probably haven’t been uploaded at this time (March 14, 2017), FReepers will need to find out primary dates from sources and / or websites in their own states.

Patriots need to qualify candidates by asking them why the Founding States made the Constitution’s Section 8 of Article I; to limit (cripple) the federal government’s powers.

Patriots also need to find candidates that are knowledgeable of the Supreme Court's clarifications of the federal government’s limited powers listed above.

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