Exclusive–Freedom Caucus Chairman: Conservative Agenda More Important Than Unity

The chairman of the House Freedom Caucus Tuesday told Breitbart News the entire GOP Conference is united as it begins the real test of passing legislation to unleash the economy.

“Achieving the agenda for the American people and making them happy around a dinner table is a lot better [and more important] than trying to make members happy on Capitol Hill,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R.-N.C.), who is the new leader of the House Freedom Caucus, the conservative bloc inside the House GOP caucus.

Meadows filed the formal Vacate the Chair motion in 2015, which led directly to the resignation of then-House Speaker John A. Boehner (R.-Ohio). The take-down of Boehner was fueled by his inability to push the conservative agenda with the majority handed to him in the Tea Party wave in the 2010 midterms.

The North Carolinian said he feels House Republicans who were part of those fights with Boehner are now motivated by President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda. “I think the real mood [in the caucus] is trying to take a real aggressive approach in Trump’s first 100 days, to actually make tough political decisions, but obviously trying to do it in a way that brings everybody along,” he said.

Meadows said House conservatives are motivated and working. “I’ve got two meetings tomorrow on the repeal of Obamacare,” he said.

“Then, I am meeting with two senators the following day, so really it’s about not-a-whole-lot-of-time-to-get-a-whole-bunch-of-things-done,” he said.

“It really’s got to be that we stick to our principles–if we stick to our principles and get things done, then the American people will reward that with the honor to serve them for another two years,” the congressman said. “If we don’t, the results will be catastrophic at the polling booths across the country and they should be.”

Also, Meadows said the House Freedom Caucus is working on a list of more than 200 rules, regulations and executive orders and actions that the incoming president can eliminate with the stroke of a pen–including so-called “midnight regulations” which President Barack Obama is sneaking in during the last days of his term.