Eliza Collins, and Herb Jackson

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Moderate House Republicans have apparently rejected having group negotiations about a possible compromise on health care with the conservative House Freedom Caucus — the most critical group in sinking the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y. — one of President Trump's closest allies in the House — told reporters Thursday that the moderates' caucus, called the Tuesday Group, met and "unequivocally" decided not to meet with the Freedom Caucus.

“It’s not changing the opinions in our conference. We’ve moved on,” Collins said. “We have to move on to tax reform. My own hope is they will be more pliable for tax reform having the conference suffering this defeat on health care reform. I truly believe health care has moved on and won’t be dealt with until 2019, if then.”

“I am not negotiating with anyone. I’ve seen stories that there are discussions about certain negotiations between the Tuesday Group and the Freedom Caucus. That’s not the case,” Rep. Charlie Dent, a co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, said Wednesday morning on CNN. “Do I talk to other members? Absolutely. Am I negotiating with anyone about the bill that was just put aside? No.”

Dent said it was time to bring Democrats to the table and work on a bipartisan solution to fix Obamacare rather than repeal it entirely.

Another co-chairman, New Jersey Republican Rep. Tom MacArthur, said individual members are still talking with each other. But the Tuesday Group ruled out group negotiations because factions within the GOP conference negotiating with each other could result in changes that erode support from others who are not in either faction, he said.

"On the one hand, we do not want to offend our friends in the Freedom Caucus, on the other hand we do not want to enter into negotiations," MacArthur said. "When it comes to specifically trying to make changes, I will continue to work with the speaker and the president and other members of Congress and certainly my colleagues in the Tuesday Group. That's the proper way to do this.

“When side groups state to negotiate, the risk is upsetting other people who are not part of the process," he said.

The Freedom Caucus is a group of around 30 hardline conservatives who threatened en bloc to vote against the legislation because they felt it didn’t go far enough. Their demands — a couple of which were met in last-minute negotiations but still didn’t sway most of them — proved a bridge too far for a handful of moderates.

Read more:

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With Obamacare repeal dreams dashed, what can GOP accomplish?

With no Democrats backing the bill, Republicans could only lose about 20 votes, so House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Trump decided to pull the bill Friday afternoon instead of see it defeated on the floor.

But this week, leadership and the Freedom Caucus have exhibited a new willingness to reopen negotiations.

On Tuesday, Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told USA TODAY that he was working with MacArthur to set up a meeting between the two groups who had been against the bill.

“To actually just talk one-on-one with no leadership, no anybody, other than just members in the room and say ‘OK what are your objections? What gets you to ‘yes’ from a more moderate side of our spectrum? What gets us to yes from a more conservative side of the spectrum?” Meadows said. “We feel like if we can get those two then everybody in between will get to a yes. We should have been doing this all along.”

On Thursday, Freedom Caucus member Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said it was incumbent on everyone in the party to go back to the drawing board.

“I think every group — Freedom Caucus, Tuesday Group, every group — has a responsibility to write down their fundamental convictions and say here is a proposal that would get us to yes. We have that responsibility,” Franks told reporters at the Capitol.

But the Freedom Caucus lost the support of another key ally this week: the president. The group had gone almost entirely around House leadership and negotiated directly with Trump ahead of the bill being pulled. Meadows was an early supporter of Trump’s and campaigned with him during the election.

The caucus and Trump also share a similar base of supporters, but after the failure of the bill Trump seemed to have lost his patience. He tweeted a couple jabs over the weekend and on Monday, and on Thursday he threatened Freedom Caucus members in the 2018 election.

Freedom Caucus spokeswoman Alyssa Farah tweeted Thursday that it was not just caucus members who opposed the bill; key Republican moderates also announced their opposition, including Appropriations Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J.

Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, a founding Freedom Caucus member and board member sought to remind Trump that many of the Freedom Caucus members had remained his staunchest defenders even during the toughest times of the campaign.

Heritage Foundation, a conservative advocacy group that was against the legislation, responded to Collins' comments Thursday.

“Conservatives are acting in good faith to deliver on longstanding campaign promises and drive down premiums for Americans struggling under Obamacare," said Dan Holler, Vice President of Heritage Action for America. "The refusal of some within the Republican Conference to reciprocate is stunning and will only help the Democrats’ presidential nominee in 2020.”

Ryan was asked about Trump's tweet at a press conference Thursday.

"Look, I understand the president's frustration," Ryan told reporters. "I share his frustration. About 90% of our conference is for the bill ... and about 10% are not. What I encourage members to do is to keep talking with each other until we get to a consensus."

Ryan said he couldn't say when Republicans might try again to pass legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare.

"I'm not going to commit to when and what the bill is going to look like," he said. "What I'm encouraging our members to do is get to a solution ... This is too big of an issue to not get right. I'm not going to put some artificial deadline on it."

Ryan said that working with Democrats won't do any good because they have opposing goals.

"The Democrats aren't for replacing Obamacare. We are," Ryan said. "Something tells me the Democrats aren't going to help us repeal Obamacare - because they wrote it."

Ryan's comment angered Democrats and at least one Republican, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker.

Contributing: Erin Kelly