Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia said that the health care bill that President Trump tried to push through Congress would not have fulfilled the campaign promise to “drain the swamp” that both Mr. Trump and members of the House Freedom Caucus ran on in the 2016 election.
Mr. Brat said the proposal that flamed out last week would not have reduced premiums and did not go far enough in loosening government’s grip on the nation’s health care system.
“That is not good for the forgotten man back home, and when you have the federal government in charge of one-fifth of the economy, that is not draining the swamp,” Mr. Brat said. “We are with him, but someone has gotten into his ear.”
Mr. Trump suggested Thursday on Twitter that he was going to war with Mr. Brat and the other members of the House Freedom Caucus that, along with Democrats and moderate Republicans, helped sink the health care bill that the president and House Speaker Paul Ryan tried to muscle through Congress last week.
“The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!” Mr. Trump said on Twitter Thursday.
Mr. Brat, though, shrugged the tweet off, saying, “I don’t take it as a threat.”
“Everybody is saying we saved the Republican conference,” Mr. Brat said. “We are trying to help the Republican Party and the president by getting it right.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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