A priority among conservative lawmakers is to make sure the government does not continue to grow beyond a certain rate, in order to keep the budget in check, said Mark Meadows, R-N.C., the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.
"I think the biggest thing for us is making sure that we don't grow the size of government going forward in the next 10 to fifteen years. If we just cap that at about a 2.75 percent rate, we can balance over 15 (years) even with the tax cut. That's what I'm hopeful we can do," Meadows said Thursday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
However, Meadows noted that current plans would cause the deficit to increase.
"I want to be intellectually honest. Certainly, in the short run, it does that. I can make the case with GPD (gross domestic product) growth over about a 15- or 16-year period that it will balance over that length of time. But in the short-run, we will see an increase in deficit," Meadows said on "Morning Joe."
"It's not something that I espouse or think is necessarily the best way, but it's the only thing that we can get through a GOP-led Senate," Meadows added.
"The strategy employed not only by the White House, but by many conservative members is trying to return much of that money back to the taxpayer, make sure we give them back their money," Meadows said in the MSNBC interview.
Another priority for tax reform is closing corporate tax loopholes, instead of focusing on the needs of lobbyists, Meadows said.
"Everybody is for cutting out those corporate loopholes unless it's their corporate loophole," the congressman said.
"That's why it's important for members of Freedom Caucus to really make sure their voice is heard. We believe our lobbyists are the millions of forgotten American men and women back home that don't have lobbyists here," Meadows said.
He said he wants to find common ground with Democrats to "put more money in those middle-income wage earners' pockets and not just special interests here on Capitol Hill."
Meadows also addressed tax reform on Tuesday.
"We've got to get something major done . . . Am I feeling the pressure to get this done? Yes. Have I been willing to negotiate a little bit more generously because of that pressure? Yeah. That’s just shooting straight with you." he said, according to The Washington Post.
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