Four members of the House Freedom Caucus said they are disappointed in Senate Republicans' failure to bring an Obamacare repeal bill through a vote, as Republicans have promised their constituents for years that they would end the controversial healthcare law.
"It's certainly disappointing," Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program.
"We're going to go back to work to make sure that we actually get a bill. Really, what we were talking about last night was passing something to allow us to bring up a bill in a couple of weeks. So now we just work on that perfect bill and make sure that we bring it forward."
The North Carolina Republican, joined on the show by fellow Freedom Caucus members Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; Andy Biggs, R-Arizona; and Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, commented that he's optimistic that Obamacare repeal can still happen, even though "people are losing faith" after the 49-51 vote in the Senate early Friday against a "skinny repeal" bill.
"The president is staying in on this fight," said Meadows. "He is going to deliver. He made it clear this morning," said Meadows.
Jordan, a founding member of the conference, said there may be a shift in how House member approach the measure now.
"We were going to have to wait for a CBO score anyway," said Jordan. "I think there is a way forward...the other thing we're doing is we started the discharge petition process last week, where we think [we] bring up the clean repeal in the House. Let's show we have the votes for the clean repeal."
If that happens, he continued, "we can keep our word with what we told the voters last year when we voted for this [repeal bill], we put on President [Barack] Obama's desk. Let's put the same things on President [Donald] Trump's desk. That's what we have shown all along. Let's show we have the votes for that that may give more pressure and motivation for the senate to do the right thing and come together like mark had talked about."
Biggs said it is "mindboggling" that lawmakers will be gone from Washington in August, rather than remaining to hammer out Obamacare repeal and other issues.
"We have got the discharge petition going," said Biggs. "We have got some other ideas that we need to work with on healthcare. We also have the budget. We have got the tax reform. We have a debt ceiling argument coming. It blows my mind that we're probably not going to be here in August."
Lawmakers will come back in September and then leave for another week, said Biggs, and "this is just not what the American people want."
Meanwhile, Gaetz discussed the Freedom Caucus' push for an investigation of former FBI Director James Comey and Hillary Clinton's emails.
"For the last seven months it's felt like Republicans have been bringing a peace sign to a gun fight with Democrats," said Gaetz. "Each and every day Democrats are talking about impeaching our president. There seems to be a double standard in justice. The 2016 elections was a rule of law election. And I don't think that the crimes that the prior administration, of Hillary Clinton, the collusion with James Comey and Loretta Lynch should be forgotten just because Hillary Clinton lost."
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Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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