GOP memo urges purity on repeal

Republicans should refuse to “reward collaborators” by not helping industry groups that supported the healthcare law unless they advocate its full repeal, the nonprofit FreedomWorks told House leaders in a confidential memo sent Monday.

“We think the Republicans would be foolish to go along with their requests for changes absent their support for repeal,” said Dean Clancy, the memo’s co-author.

“The repeal votes were supported by only three forces: employers, the Tea Party and the truth. The K Street healthcare lobbies were AWOL,” said Clancy, a former top healthcare policy official at the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush.

{mosads}“And we’re telling Republicans, don’t reward the folks who brought you ObamaCare unless they help you repeal it.”

The memo from Clancy and FreedomWorks leaders Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe outlines a seven-point repeal strategy that includes making repeal unavoidable by passing a balanced-budget amendment, and not reducing any taxes from the healthcare law unless the affected industries endorse full repeal.

The memo suggests repeal is within reach, and advises House leaders to start offering their own proposals for healthcare reform.

“We’re sending this memo because we believe your ultimate success depends as much on how you handle the ‘replace’ as the ‘repeal’ side of the strategy,” the memo to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) states.

The memo suggests that the GOP offer a concise “replace” agenda.

“Politically, it’s much easier to sell repeal if people know what you would do instead,” Clancy said.

Republicans should seek to unravel the law by repealing or delaying its core elements, and by seeking to defund implementation, the memo said.

Clancy acknowledged that a lot of the lobby groups want the same “fixes” to the bill. He said Republicans should get them all on board with repeal before dealing with them.

“If the big dogs at the table join the repeal effort, then the other, smaller actors will probably come along,” Clancy said. “If the hospitals, the doctors, the nursing homes, the big players switch sides, it will be an earthquake in this town.”

The House in January voted to repeal the healthcare law, but Republicans in the Senate failed to win a majority vote on a procedural motion to move to repeal.