Meadows Calls for “Action-Oriented” Agenda Between Now and November
WASHINGTON, DC – The leader of the House Freedom Caucus appeared before a breakfast meeting of The Ripon Society yesterday morning, delivering remarks about his group’s approach to governing, and the need for Republicans to be “action-oriented” heading into the mid-term elections later this year.
“There is a narrative out there that the Freedom Caucus is the ‘Hell No!’ caucus,” stated U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows (NC-11), who has served as Chairman of the group since November 2016. “There is also a narrative out there that there is no way that we will get to ‘yes.’ So one of the things that I told our members is that you have to be able to do two things — you have to be able to say ‘no’ to leadership, but you also have to be able to say ‘yes.’
“So many times, people focus on the ‘no’ to leadership side of things. If you are going to do that, you will always frustrate everyone, because if you are never a ‘yes,’ then there is no reason to have you at the table. If you think about it, if I am always going to be a ‘no,’ they will just assume that I am a ‘no’ — so why come and have the debate? So we have started to press that over and over and over again in working with our current leadership — whether it has been the Speaker or whether it has been Leader McCarthy.
“I can tell you in the lead up to the tax reform debate, there were dates that were frankly quite important to members of the Freedom Caucus. We actually moved it along and got it done last year, not this year. Leader McCarthy was able to not only deliver on those dates, but went above and beyond to make sure we hit those targets.”
Meadows was elected to the House in 2012 after spending nearly three decades as a successful small business owner. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Freedom Caucus, he also serves as Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations.
In these and other roles, he has become a leading conservative voice in the future direction of the House. That includes the upcoming race for Speaker – which, Meadows declared, Republicans should not be focused on at this time.
“There is not a race right now,” the North Carolina lawmaker stated matter-of-factly. “The Speaker is obviously going to be here until November. Some of you would question that, because you would say there is a whole lot of jockeying behind the position. What we do know is that he will either be here until November, or there will be a baton-passing that will be of his choosing. There is not going to be a forced coup or anything else to say that we need to change the leadership. Because I don’t know that it helps any of us. Everyone thinks, ‘Gosh, if you just had a different Speaker, the mid-terms will turn out different.’ That is not the case.
“Let me tell you what is really going to turn the mid-terms. I am not as pessimistic about it. Is there energy on the other side? There is, without a doubt. But I also know that if we continue to work — whether it is on the farm bill next week, whether it is on transportation, or whether it is on other issues important to the America people – and if people continue to see that we are delivering, what will happen is that this will all compound the actual growth that we are seeing with the tax cuts.”
To that end, Meadows stated that the members of the Freedom Caucus are working on a set of priorities that, they believe, the House should address in the coming months.
“We are now in the process of looking at the next seven months, and saying, ‘Okay, what are the important priorities that we can accomplish between now and November?’ he revealed. “It is not directed at the Speaker’s race. It is not directed at any other leadership race. It is saying, ‘What will we accomplish?’ I think if we accomplish those things, what will happen is not only will people not care about who the Speaker is, but it will serve us the Republicans well in the mid-terms.
“Americans are business people or they work for businesses, and they care about results. And so you will see in the next week or so a list of five things that are coming out that we think should be priorities between now and November, and that are achievable. The worst thing we could do right now is put out an aspirational document that says, ‘If you just give us the House one more time, we will be able to get this done.’ It has to be action-oriented with a short fuse that we get it done between now and November.”
Meadows also talked about his relationship with President Trump and the straightforward advice that he tries to provide the nation’s 45th Chief Executive when asked.
“We do enjoy a closer relationship with this President than perhaps the previous administration,” Meadows said. “In fact, I had never seen the Oval Office until this President came into place. I probably have now been in the Oval Office more than I ever thought that I would — a guy from North Carolina who was just a business guy, now in the most powerful office perhaps in the world.
“I will say this — all the headlines would suggest that there is this ship that doesn’t have navigation and a point. What I have found is that there is a lot more direction that you would ever imagine. I have had conversations with the President on a regular basis and I can tell you that it is a frank kind of conversation. I do consider him a friend. I do realize he is the President of the United States and I am not. But the other part is that I don’t work for him.
“I work for 750,000 people in Western North Carolina. So it allows me a little more candor that perhaps he has from his own staff. When I thought he was going the wrong way on tariffs, I was able to pick up the phone and tell him that I believe he was going the wrong way on tariffs.”
Meadows concluded his remarks by returning to the subject of the Freedom Caucus and the group’s approach not only to governing, but to other organizations and individuals in Washington.
“We are actually engaging with a couple of our Tuesday Group friends,” the Chairman stated, referring to the group of moderate Republicans in the House. “We understand that this is a team sport. Sometimes when you read the headlines, it doesn’t seem that way. We have members who you sometimes wish wouldn’t say what they said. But I think everybody has that. At the same time, everybody who thinks the Freedom Caucus is a group that thinks all together is missing the point.
“We actually now have more members of Congress and more people coming in each week during our meeting to let us know about one particular issue or another. Phil Roe is going to talk about what he is doing on the VA. Kristi Noem came in and talked about her efforts on the internet tax issue. Jared Kushner is coming in for criminal justice reform next week. The meeting each and every week is a debate club … I would encourage everyone to engage them and engage me.”
To view Meadows’ remarks before The Ripon Society breakfast discussion yesterday morning, please click on the link below:
The Ripon Society is a public policy organization that was founded in 1962 and takes its name from the town where the Republican Party was born in 1854 – Ripon, Wisconsin. One of the main goals of The Ripon Society is to promote the ideas and principles that have made America great and contributed to the GOP’s success. These ideas include keeping our nation secure, keeping taxes low and having a federal government that is smaller, smarter and more accountable to the people.