You can call me an unprincipled RINO if you want. Let's see if you say the same thing about Republican Congressman Ted Poe of Texas. He's one of the founding members of the House Freedom Caucus. He helped found it because he believed Republicans should push for conservative legislation wherever possible. I believe that too, for what it's worth.
House conservatives wanted to be a voice in the process and wanted to have the opportunity to help shape legislation
But Ted Poe is no longer willing to be part of the HFC because it's no longer what he envisioned when he helped start it. Originally, Poe explains, House conservatives wanted to be a voice in the process and wanted to have the opportunity to help shape legislation. The House Freedom Caucus would have you believe that President Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan ignored their concerns and didn't give them the opportunity to make the bill better.
But that's Bolshevik. Here's Poe himself explaining that the House Freedom Caucus got what it's always demanding, and it didn't know how to take yes for an answer:
I was pretty rough on the HFC yesterday. Some of you didn't like it. You said I should have blamed Ryan and the rest of the House leadership for pushing a bill that "didn't really repeal ObamaCare" but instead merely set in stone the idea that health care is a function of big government. You can argue that if you want, but if you do, then you don't really know what happened.
Poe explains it pretty clearly. The HFC was allowed to be central the process. Again and again, the White House and the leadership agreed to their demands, thinking that would seal the deal and get them on board. But again and again, the HFC only introduced new demands and refused to support the bill.
Soon it became clear that no matter what the HFC members were given, they would only come up with new demands and they would never be satisfied. They were simply determined to stop the bill, thus allowing ObamaCare to remain on the books . . . who knows, maybe forever?
Now, I do not believe the process should end with this. The right way to handle this is for the leadership to sit down with House and Senate moderates on the one hand, and House and Senate conservatives on the other hand, and see what they can get everyone to agree on - then pass a bill that at least achieves all those things and repeals ObamaCare.
But . . . how can you do that when you've got one group in the process that continually moves the goalposts? That's what the House Freedom Caucus did throughout this entire process. They said what they wanted, they got it, and then they refused to get on board but instead made all kinds of new demands. You can't make a deal with people like that because you can't trust them to honor their own position.
Don't want to take my word for it? Fine. Take the word of the guy who helped create the House Freedom Caucus, and today is disgusted with it because it saved ObamaCare. I suppose you could tar him as a squishy unprincipled RINO too. Then again, if you're determined enough, you can say it about anyone. That might make you feel better, but it won't change the fact that we're still stuck with ObamaCare.
