Freedom Caucus leader predicts health care passage within weeks

Virginia Rep. Dave Brat, one of the conservative Freedom Caucus leaders whose resistance helped undermine the Republican health care proposal last month, says White House and congressional negotiators are close to a compromise that he predicts will pass the House in the next three weeks.

“Within a few weeks, I think D.C. is going to be a little bit shocked,” he said in an interview with Capital Download. “We’re going to get to yes.”

One reason: The consequences of not getting to yes could be catastrophic for Republicans, who have been promising for seven years to repeal President Obama‘s signature Affordable Care Act. “A huge brawl” would follow failure to act, he warns, outraging Republican constituents who expect them to deliver.

He notes that GOP members of Congress already are being blasted at local town-hall meetings by Democratic constituents outraged by President Trump’s election.

“The new guys on the block are showing up in an environment now where we’re having these town halls, and we’re getting just annihilated, right?” Brat said in an interview in his district office, outside Richmond. He was heckled and booed at a town hall in February; he’s not holding any during this congressional break.

Read the full story at USA Today: Freedom Caucus leader Brat predicts health care passage within weeks