The Freedom Caucus is already pushing on House leadership to include conservatives on tax reform to avoid the same fate as the Obamacare replacement plan, Politico reported.
Chairman of the conservative wing Rep. Mark Meadows praised the outreach so far from the committees working on tax reform language, but said the Caucus needs to be included on any draft before reading about it later.
"When a member sees the text for the first time in a leaked draft from Politico, therein is a problem," Meadows told Politico.
Unlike the American Health Care Act, the failed legislation that was supposed to be the House's answer for Obamacare, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady is planning to hold hearings on tax reform.
"Because we don't have a very short month, month-and-a-half timetable as we did in health care, I think that helps us on tax reform," Brady told Politico.
Already shaping up to be a major battleground on tax reform is the border tax, a favorite of Speaker Paul Ryan, as a measure to help offset tax cuts being proposed by President Donald Trump.
The White House is also looking at the creation of new taxes — a carbon tax and a value-added tax — as potential offsets to cuts.
The devil is in the details and conservatives want to play an active role in the drafting of those, a sin of the past all Republicans would rather avoid making again.
"Put it out there, let it get shot at, identify the stakeholders and leverage points, and then piece this together in a long-term, substantive package that can survive the scrutiny of a vote," Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., told Politico.
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