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President Trump has lashed out at the conservative House Freedom Caucus for its role in bringing down the GOP health care bill, while House Speaker Paul Ryan is urging the party to work together. Getty Images hide caption

President Trump has lashed out at the conservative House Freedom Caucus for its role in bringing down the GOP health care bill, while House Speaker Paul Ryan is urging the party to work together.

President Trump escalated a Twitter war with lawmakers in his own party on Thursday evening, calling out three members of the Freedom Caucus by name.

"If @RepMarkMeadows, @Jim_Jordan and @Raul_Labrador would get on board we would have both great healthcare and massive tax cuts & reform," he tweeted.

The attack follows an earlier 140-character missive aimed at both the Freedom Caucus and Democrats. It's a curious tactic, given that Trump's only two options to pass his agenda through Congress are to either unite the fractured GOP or to form new alliances across the aisle.

"The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!" Trump tweeted on Thursday morning.

It did not change hearts or minds.

"Freedom Caucus stood with u when others ran. Remember who your real friends are. We're trying to help u succeed," replied Rep. Ral Labrador, R-Idaho, a member of the group of conservatives who helped take down the GOP health care bill.

The public and personal feuding among Republicans percolated throughout the U.S. Capitol this week as GOP confidence in their party's ability to govern alongside the Trump administration is shaken.

"It's clear that tensions are running high," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. "I believe we can come together, and the only way for us to govern and deliver on our promises is for Republicans not to turn the cannons on each other, but stand united behind shared principles, and that's what I hope all of us do."

The White House has provoked congressional Republicans further in recent days by suggesting he'll just go around them and cut deals with Democrats instead.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., tried to head off any potential alliance, telling CBS: "I don't want that to happen." Ryan's reasoning correctly is that if the president needs Democrats to pass major legislation, it will be a lot less conservative than anything the speaker hopes to enact in the next two years.

Ryan was more conciliatory toward the president than Labrador.

"This is a can-do president, who's a business guy, who wants to get things done, and I know that he wants to get things done with a Republican Congress," Ryan told CBS. "But if this Republican Congress allows the perfect to be the enemy of the good, I worry we'll push the president into working with the Democrats. He's suggested as much."

Across the Capitol, Ryan's argument did not impress at least one prominent fellow Republican. Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn. called out Ryan, again on Twitter: "We have come a long way in our country when the speaker of one party urges a president NOT to work with the other party to solve a problem."

House Republicans' health care failure has left Senate Republicans wondering if they need to shoulder more of the legislative burden. In that event, Democrats will be integral to the process because of the 60-vote hurdle to do most of the legislating in the Senate.

For their part, Democrats say they are ready if not exactly excited to work with the president. "We say, 'any time, anywhere,' " House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters on Thursday. "We never stand in the way of anyone meeting with a Democratic or a Republican president."

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., chairs the New Democrat Coalition, a faction of about four dozen business-friendly Democrats that, in theory, stand ready to work with the president on certain agenda items, like infrastructure spending. But Himes hasn't heard from the president. "No, the White House has not reached out," he said. "We're totally willing to engage in that, provided that it's consistent with our values."

Himes also said the burden to extend the olive branch rests on the other side of the aisle. "Look, these guys run the show now. They've got the Oval Office, they've got the Senate and the House. If they're interesting in having our support, it's kind of on them to come to us."

At least in the short term, Republicans have decided they need to work with Democrats to keep the government open. The federal government faces a shutdown on April 28 unless Congress enacts another stopgap spending bill or passes the remaining annual spending bills.

Seeking to head off another shutdown fight, GOP leaders and the appropriations committees are working behind the scenes on a bill to enact the remaining 11 spending bills at previously agreed to spending levels that conservatives opposed in the past. They are also looking to separate out the president's funding request to start building a U.S.-Mexico border wall, and the speaker has indicated Republicans will not add in "poison pill" policy riders on things like defunding Planned Parenthood.

All of those concessions are intended to bring Democrats on board to make sure Congress can pass the legislation. The end result is a less conservative vision of how Congress should spend the nation's money. If it works, it might also provide a framework for how this Congress will work going forward.

More here:
Republicans 'Turn The Cannons On Each Other' In Week Of Public Feuding - NPR

New York Magazine

House Republicans to Trump: Steal All You Want New York Magazine Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted this week not to compel the release of President Trump's tax returns. And Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, who claimed before the election that he had years of ... and more »

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House Republicans to Trump: Steal All You Want - New York Magazine

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Here are two things you can bet money on: There will always be an interpretation of a Bible verse to justify just about anything, and that interpretation will most times be found by a white, male Republican. The latest biblical verse being used to justify cuts to SNAP, aka food stamps, is Thessalonians 3-10.

[T]he Scripture tells us ... for even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: If a man will not work, he shall not eat, Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said during a House of Representatives hearing on nutrition, according to the Washington Posts Wonkblog. Arrington continued: And then he goes on to say, We hear that some among you are idle. I think that every American, Republican or Democrat, wants to help the neediest among us. And I think its a reasonable expectation that we have work requirements. I think ... that gives more credibility, quite frankly, to SNAP.

Arrington isnt even original, as Wonkblog points out. Hes the third Republican to use the hot biblical verse to justify gutting the public assistance program. Of course, many Republicans believe the myth that the majority of people on public assistance are merely freeloaders just trying to take the system for a ride. The Post points out that many people on SNAP cant work, either because they dont have job skills, theyre mentally ill or disabled, or theyre children who have recently aged out of foster care. But when have Republicans ever let facts stop them?

No one is suggesting that people who dont want to work should get benefits,Josh Protas, the vice president of public policy at MAZON, told Wonkblog. There are stereotypes about SNAP recipients and myths about the program that are very harmful to people in need who could take advantage of it.

The Post also notes that the unemployed make up a small percentage of those who actually use SNAP: According to the Department of Agriculture [pdf], nearly two-thirds of SNAP recipients are children, seniors and people with disabilities. Of the remaining third, the vast majority are employed. According to the USDA, only 14 percent of all SNAP participants work less than 30 hours per week.

And as USA Today reports, recipients get between a lousy $1.40 and $1.90 per meal.

But yes, lets all band together and take that from them because the Biblewhich also promotes kindness, generosity, love; you know, all the basic tenets of being a nondeplorablesupposedly says so.

Read more at Wonkblog and USA Today.

More here:
The Hot Bible Verse That Republicans Use to Justify Drastic Cuts to Food Stamps - The Root

Will Republicans learn the limits of oppositional politics? - BBC News BBC News Is the Republican healthcare bill a single failure or the symptom of a party that's turned itself into a protest movement? and more »

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Will Republicans learn the limits of oppositional politics? - BBC News - BBC News

Reeling from the defeat of their health care proposal last week, Republicans in Congress are regrouping and planning for the coming months. There are budget deadlines to meet and policy issues to tackle, ranging from tax reform to infrastructure .

But prospects for achieving major victories in the coming months looks dim. Many lawmakers are concerned that divisions in its ranks between conservatives and moderates will make it difficult to notch any major achievements in the coming months.

Things that you assumed could happen automatically, youd better now spend a lot more time on and make sure they occur, said Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma.

Many have advocated looking beyond the partys own ranks and finding common ground with Democrats.

Weve got a lot of work to do, said Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. One of the things we need to do and its going to be harder now, because we just failed is theres got to be bipartisanship.

Here are the five issues Republicans will have to work out.

How to defund Planned Parenthood

The government is set to partially shut down on April 28 unless Congress approves a spending package first. Republicans are deciding how many of their policy priorities to squeeze into the proposal without risking a government shutdown.

Planned Parenthood is one measure many Republicans want to see in the spending package due by the end of April. But Democrats could filibuster the government funding bill in the Senate, thereby forcing Republicans to decide whether they want to shut down the government.

That has made House Speaker Paul Ryan wary about defunding it through the April spending package, leading him to suggest defunding the womens health organization through a budget reconciliation measure instead.

The budget reconciliation will head off the risk of Senate filibuster from Democrats, as it only requires a simple majority to pass the upper chamber.

We think reconciliation is the tool, because that gets it into law, Ryan told reporters, responding to a question about Planned Parenthood funding. Reconciliation is the way to go."

If conservatives in the Republican conference object to Ryans delay, however, there could be a fight on the partys hands.

Whether to pay for a border wall

Another measure that some want to see in the government funding bill next month is funding for President Trumps proposed wall on the border with Mexico. It is a major campaign promise by the president, and one that galvanized many voters in Republican Congressional districts.

Does that need to be a presidential priority? Well hes made it one, said Randy Weber, Republican from Texas. Is there support for getting it in there? Unequivocally yes. Can they get it in? I dont know, well have to see.

Democrats have firmly objected, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying border wall funding would be a poison pill that would lead to a filibuster.

Whether to pursue the border adjustment tax

Tax reform is the next big item on the Republicans agenda. But rewriting the tax code is notoriously difficult, and there are strong divisions among Republicans about what would work best.

Republican leaders in the House have insisted that the best method would be through a 20% border adjustment which would tax goods consumed in the United States and slash the corporate tax rate. Its a revolutionary plan that would likely help domestic manufacturers like Boeing and hurt importers like Walmart , but it has enough skeptics in the Senate that it might be a pipe dream.

The conflict is setting up the GOP for another fight.

Whether to end the filibuster on the Supreme Court

It is looking increasingly likely that Democrats will have the votes needed to block the confirmation vote for Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, with Democratic senators from across the political spectrum saying they will oppose President Trump's nominee. That will force Senate Republicans to either back down, or trigger the so-called nuclear option , which would abolish the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees, and force Gorsuch through.

It is a difficult choice for Republicans. Many longtime senators are traditionalists and do not want to change the rules of the Senate. Abolishing the filibuster requires a majority in the Senate, so just two Republicans would need to get cold feet for the effort to fail, and thus sink Gorsuch's confirmation.

Still, even moderate Republicans with a longstanding respect for the Senate's rules are adamant that Gorsuch will get confirmed one way or another. "He will be confirmed," said McCain.

"We will confirm him. So whatever it takes, were going to have to do," Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah told National Journal .

Whether to try repealing Obamacare again

Republicans are not done with their effort to repeal Obamacare. After Fridays defeat, the House Republicans held a rousing conference meeting, where members committed again to finding a way to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a law that repeals certain regulations and reduces federal expenditures.

What shape that law will take is hard to know, and Republicans have not started drafting new ideas. The old, deep divisions in the party have not disappeared, and the hard-right members of the Freedom Caucus will still want a plan that looks very different from what moderates want.

Still, despite the difficulty of health care and all the other pressing matters President Trump promised to address, many members want to repeal Obamacare first .

If we just sit up here and play diddly-winks, itll hurt us, said Republican Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia. I think you need to do health care first.

The fact that we did not pass a bill next week doesnt mean we are not going to pass a billId love to see it pass next weekbut if its not next week, then its next month, said Republican Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia.

Until we decide what were doing with health care, everything is going to be a stumbling block, Republican Rep. Dennis Ross of Florida.

The rest is here:
5 Big Decisions Republicans in Congress Have to Make Soon - TIME