"In some scenario, I can support an advance refundable [tax credit] in that I understand the need of the working poor to be able to afford health care coverage," Meadows told reporters.
Those roughly 40 House Freedom Caucus members, as well as the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, were speaking out against the advance refundable tax credits that would be part of a health care plan.
Cruz has been cagey on whether he would draw hard lines on positions like the advance refundable tax credits, but he told reporters Tuesday that he has "a number of concerns with the draft bill".
For instance, after the press conference, Meadows said he would be willing to agree to some form of the advance refundable tax credits that other conservatives are painting as a new welfare program.
In the House GOP leadership edit of Trump's address, for instance, "tax credits" become "advance refundable tax credits" ― a controversial cornerstone of House Speaker Paul Ryan's replacement plan that conservatives say is nothing more than another monthly welfare check.
Freedom Caucus members still haven't given up on overhauling a linchpin of the bill ― the advance refundable tax credits ― but some members now acknowledge that major changes to the basis of the replacement language would pretty much amount to Republicans starting over, which doesn't look apt to happen.
Meadows and other Freedom Caucus members didn't want to talk about specific amendments with reporters, but they're likely to push to restructure some portion of the bill's advance refundable tax credits, which they don't like in principle.
"Advance monthly refundable tax credits is a euphemism for a new monthly entitlement check," Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky).
Some Republicans, like Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, would replace the tax-free treatment of health benefits with a refundable tax credit for the purchase of insurance -- an idea similar to one advanced in the 2008 presidential campaign by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.
