The House Freedom Caucus is taking heat for thwarting Republicans’ Obamacare replacement bill.
“The House Freedom Caucus just single-handedly saved #Obamacare,” Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger tweeted after President Trump told Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to pull the bill.
Fox News political analyst Brit Hume suggested former President Obama take the House Freedom Caucus out to dinner in exchange for them saving the bill that bears his name. “They are the pie-in-the-sky caucus,” he added.
Speaker Ryan, basically: I don’t want to cast blame, but it was the #FreedomCaucus‘s fault.
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) March 24, 2017
The caucus, which contains about 30 of the House’s most conservative members, largely opposed the bill on the grounds that it didn’t do enough to repeal Obamacare.
U.S. Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) (C), chairman of the Freedom Caucus (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernsta)
President Trump called out the caucus in the hours leading up to when the bill was supposed to go to the floor.
“The irony is that the Freedom Caucus, which is very pro-life and against Planned Parenthood, allows [Planned Parenthood] to continue if they stop this plan!” Trump tweeted Friday morning.
Trump later struck a more conciliatory position after the bill’s collapse.
“I don’t feel betrayed, because they’re friends of mine,” he said of the caucus. “But I’m disappointed, because we could have had it.”