“The Koch brothers have also emerged as de facto nemeses of the Trump administration…”
After years of voting to repeal Obamacare and to replace it with something better, Republican efforts went up in flames last week after the GOP failed to push through their health care reform bill, the American Health Care Act. Now, Republican leaders in Congress are looking to move onto other efforts, including tax reform. As the dust settles, fingers continue to be pointed, and in this case Donald Trump knows exactly who to blame: far right legislators and special interest groups.
Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & Ocare!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 26, 2017
Over the weekend Trump hit back at various special interest groups and politicians, utilizing his favorite form of communication -Twitter- to lash out at rebellious lawmakers. Health care reform died after hard-lined conservative lawmakers refused to accept certain concessions and measures pushed by moderate GOP members of Congress. Trump, by and large, was aligned with moderate Republicans, recognizing that the hard-lined approach would leave many Americans without health insurance or access to Medicaid, which would make the 2018 elections especially difficult.
The irony is that the Freedom Caucus, which is very pro-life and against Planned Parenthood, allows P.P. to continue if they stop this plan!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2017
Special interest groups, including the Club for Growth, and the Heritage Action for America group, have emerged as a powerful resistance network. These groups pushed hard to block health care reform. While Donald Trump swept through the Republican primaries with ease, and was able to hold off attacks from more traditional “Republican” politicians and interest groups, these special interests remain reluctant to work with Trump.
The Grand Ole Party has grown over the past several years, but as it as grown it has brought an increasingly disparate group of power players and interests underneath its big tent. Now, many of these interests aren’t getting along. The most significant of these groups is arguably the “Freedom Caucus”, a group of far right conservative Republican lawmakers that is closely aligned with (and funded by) the Koch brothers.
The Koch brothers have already vowed to defend Republicans who resisted the GOP’s health care reform efforts. The brother’s Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners, a massive, conservative “grassroots” organizing effort, is looking to establish a seven figure fund to protect Conservative lawmakers who blocked the passage of the AHCA bill. The Koch brothers have also emerged as de facto nemeses of the Trump administration, first opposing Trump during the primaries, and now using the Freedom Caucus to resist his efforts to govern.
For the record, I am glad that health care reform failed. Obamacare is a bad system, but it is better than the system that was being pushed by moderate Republicans. It is also better than the alternative being pushed by the Koch brothers. Both Obamacare alternatives would be a massive payout to the rich at the expense of working class Americans.
Brian Brinker is an OpsLens Contributor and political consultant. Brinker has an M.A in Global Affairs from American University.
