House conservatives want to know tax reform won't end up like healthcare

House conservatives took flak this week for demanding assurances on tax reform before approving a budget resolution.

In their eyes, it's a bid to prevent the same outcome that befell the Obamacare replacement effort. Then, they approved a budget that was little more than a vehicle for repealing Obamacare with only 51 votes in the Senate. They went along with the "shell" budget to pass an Obamacare replacement in the House, only to see the Senate fail to do the same — and then use the legislative vehicle to consider "skinny repeal" and other legislation they hadn't originally contemplated.

"We passed a shell budget, and then we got a bill that was meaningless," said Rep. Mark Meadows, the North Carolina Republican who heads the House Freedom Caucus. "And we don't want to do the same thing on tax reform."

Now, House Freedom Caucus members say that they would need to see the basics of the tax reform idea before they could go along with a budget resolution. Budgets, in theory, are supposed to outline Congress' plans for spending and taxing. In reality, though, the critical aspect of passing a fiscal 2018 budget is to unlock budget reconciliation, a process that allows fiscal measures to pass with only 51 votes in the Senate, disarming the filibuster.

Once reconciliation is available, however, it could be used for different purposes. The conservative members sought assurances about the basic form of the tax reform under consideration.