Just hours after Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chair of the conservative Freedom Caucus, said he would vote against Trump‘s draft ObamaCare replacement bill (that leaked last week), The Hill reports that another influential Republican Committee member, Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) has said he will not back the bill.
Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), head of the 172-member committee, said Monday his opposition stems from the draft bill’s use of refundable tax credits.
“There are serious problems with what appears to be our current path to repeal and replace Obamacare. The draft legislation, which was leaked last week, risks continuing major Obamacare entitlement expansions and delays any reforms,” Walker said in a statement Monday.
“It kicks the can down the road in the hope that a future Congress will have the political will and fiscal discipline to reduce spending that this Congress apparently lacks. Worse still,” Walker continued, “the bill contains what increasingly appears to be a new health insurance entitlement with a Republican stamp on it.”
Walker said he could not “in good conscience” recommend Study Committee members vote for the draft.
Walker became the second top Republican to come out against the draft bill Monday.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chair of the conservative Freedom Caucus, also said he would vote against the measure as drafted.
He voiced his opposition to the tax credits, which he called an “entitlement program,” in an interview with CNN.
Meadows indicated that other members of the caucus may vote against the repeal bill if it contains the refundable tax credit.
Congressional disillusionment at Trumps’ Obamacare reform plan follows the “disturbing” reaction the President got from State Governors over the weekend.
Given that President Trump made it clear that his Obamacare reform plan has to be complete before he can begin his tax reform plan, this is a problem for the anxious market participants dolefully waiting for their tax handout to make stocks great-er again.
via http://ift.tt/2mEoVZG Tyler Durden