GOP Rep. Amash: Health Bill ‘Remains A Disaster,’ ‘Not True’ That Con’s Flipped

U.S Rep. Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township, speaks to the audience during a town hall meeting on Feb. 23, 2017 at the Full Blast Recreation Center in Battle Creek, Mich. (Carly Geraci | MLive.com)
U.S Rep. Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township, speaks to the audience during a town hall meeting on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017 at the Full Blast Recreation Center in Battle Creek, Mich. Amash is embracing the town halls t... U.S Rep. Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township, speaks to the audience during a town hall meeting on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017 at the Full Blast Recreation Center in Battle Creek, Mich. Amash is embracing the town halls that many of his Republican counterparts in Congress have avoided as people lash out at President Donald Trump’s early actions and the planned repeal of the federal health care law. (Carly Geraci/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP) MORE LESS
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A conservative Republican congressman said Friday that, contrary to President Donald Trump’s claims that some Republicans had changed their votes on the American Health Care Act, the bill “remains a disaster.”

The comment came in a tweet from Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), shortly after President Donald Trump praised what he characterized as a successful meeting with members of the Republican Study Committee, meant to find a consensus on the bill.

In a press availability after the meeting Thursday, Trump said, referring to the dozen-or-so congresspeople in the room, “100 percent of the noes are now yeses.”

Amash said last week that House leadership was trying to “ram this through,” the Congress, referring to the Affordable Health Care Act. He told CNN that “the problem actually is that they’re not working with Democrats.”

In a January town hall, he advocated for a conditional repeal of Obamacare, one that would be activated at the state level only once state legislatures passed their own replacement of the federal law. Prior to that town hall, Amash was one of nine Republicans to vote against the repeal of Obamacare in a budget reconciliation bill.

Amash’s office confirmed that he is not a member of the Republican Study Committee. In 2014, Amash and a small group of conservatives created the House Liberty Caucus, reported at the time as being to the right of the 170-member Study Committee.

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