A founding member of the House Freedom Caucus pushed back against the White House’s argument that GOP opponents lawmakers of the failed plan to replace Obamacare must recognize that the perfect is the enemy of the good.
“Well, this wasn’t even good,” Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “When no one likes the legislation, you have to do it different.”
President Trump and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, called off a vote on the bill last week after it became clear that they did not have enough votes to pass it through the House and onto the Senate.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus refused to back the bill, as did some centrist members of the GOP caucus.
Mr. Trump took aim at some of the holdouts over the weekend, saying on Twitter that “Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & Ocare!”
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, meanwhile, said on Fox News Sunday that “we can’t be chasing the perfect all the time.”
“I mean, sometimes you have to take the good and put it in your pocket and take the win,” he said.
Mr. Jordan, though, said Monday the bill failed because it did not deliver on the GOP promise to fully repeal Obamacare, and said
the party could have trouble on other issues — including tax reform — if it doesn’t learn from the health care debate.
“Let’s just do what we said,” he said. “If we do that, I think we will be fine. If we don’t, I think we will have the same problems we had on this last bill, unfortunately.”
Mr. Jordan described the health care proposal as a “mishmash” and said it had been “hidden” away from members.
“There were political problems with this bill, there were policy problems, and there were process problems, and typically good process will lead to better policy,” he said.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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