Meadows Meets with McConnell to Discuss Tax Overhaul
House Freedom Caucus chairman says negotiations still needed
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell late Wednesday afternoon to discuss a tax overhaul and outline potential stumbling blocks, among other topics.
“To suggest at this point that tax reform is a done deal on the House side would be missing some of the subtle cues that would indicate that there are still some negotiations to take place,” the North Carolina Republican said, referring to changes that would likely be needed between the bill’s scheduled release Thursday and the markup that is expected to begin Monday.
However, he still expressed confidence that the effort will prove successful.
“We’re going to get tax reform done,” Meadows said. “It may be a little messy. It may not be as fun as we all would have liked to have seen it be over the last few weeks, but we’re going to get it done. And failure is not an option.”
Meadows said he requested the meeting with the Kentucky Republican to give him a feel for where House conservatives are on upcoming legislative matters like the tax overhaul and funding the government.
“The Freedom Caucus is either blamed or credited, depending on your point of view, for a whole lot of things that happen or don’t happen here on Capitol Hill. And I felt like it was important that he understand where the general thinking is on tax reform and certainly military funding and the like.”