As the dust settles on the early-morning vote, the grand total of House Freedom Caucus members who voted against the bill they claimed to hate was ... zero.

Two GOP members — Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio — voted against the package, but Massie isn’t a part of the far-right contingent and Davidson was kicked out of the group last summer. Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, the Freedom Caucus’ current chairman who repeatedly railed against the bill in recent days, voted “present” in a rather pitiful display.

But as striking as it was to see the Freedom Caucus fall in line, just as important was the familiarity of the circumstances.


As a recent Washington Post analysis summarized:

Each threat from leaders of the House Freedom Caucus ended with the same result: capitulation. After caving on each round of threats, these far-right conservatives vowed that the next time would be different — if their demands were not met precisely as they sought. This collection of several dozen Republicans, after a decade of rabble-rousing that helped push aside three other speakers, has yet to fully buck Johnson ... on any major initiative this year.

That was published in early April. Several weeks later, it’s still accurate......

In one especially memorable instance, Freedom Caucus Chair Harris said he was so opposed to his party’s budget resolution that Donald Trump shouldn’t even bother calling him to twist his arm. The president, the Maryland Republican said in April, should “spend time with people whose minds he might change. He’s just not going to change my mind.” Around the same time, Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas called the proposal “a joke” written by legislators who couldn’t “pass a math test.”

Two days later, Harris and Roy voted for the bill they’d vowed to oppose.

It’s at least possible that in coming weeks and months, Freedom Caucus members will eventually find a bill that they consider unacceptable; but for now, we’re dealing with an unmistakable legislative dynamic in which the far-right faction talks a good game, right up until Trump tells them what to do — at which point the lapdogs roll over.