Steve Bannon tried to bully the Freedom Caucus into backing Obamacare replacement bill

  In the days leading up to the Obamacare replacement non-vote it became quite clear that the conservatives–namely the Freedom Caucus–were not happy and wanted changes. Eventually they were able to get a couple of small concessions but not nearly enough to win any of them over.

    It became pretty clear that Paul Ryan and the establishment Republicans were not going to budge and if this story is true it turns out Steve Bannon basically dared the conservatives to vote against this bill–basically trying to bully them into voting in favor of a piece of legislation they did not agree with. Here is more:

White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon told a group of House conservatives they had no choice but to back the GOP’s ObamaCare repeal bill days before the bill was pulled, according to a new report.

Bannon confronted members of the House Freedom Caucus earlier this week during the White House’s push for the American Health Care Act, Axios’s Mike Allen reported Saturday in his newsletter.

“Guys, look. This is not a discussion. This is not a debate. You have no choice but to vote for this bill,” Bannon reportedly said.

  But of course this is the Congress and debate is what the Congress does, they did have a choice and they exercised it and Steve Bannon’s attempt at bulling the Freedom Caucus backfired. Perhaps Donald Trump and Steve Bannon can learn a valuable lesson from all of this with the realization that they are going to have to work with the conservatives in the Congress if they want to get anything done. They cannot just dictate what they want and expect to get it.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium