Rep. Tom MacArthur resigns as co-chair of moderate GOP group

Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-New Jersey, has resigned as the co-chair of the moderate Tuesday Group, he announced Tuesday.

MacArthur notified group members in a letter, in which he lamented division within the group, saying many members are unwilling to compromise and the most recent healthcare debate illustrated that point.

MacArthur was instrumental in authoring an amendment to the House GOP healthcare plan, that would allow states to get federal waiver to the requirement that insurers charge healthy and sick customers the same premiums. The change would be for people who let their coverage lapse. MacArthur said those people would be covered by high-risk pools.

The American Healthcare Act would give states $100 billion over the next decade to help with high-risk pools.

While Republicans celebrated after the bill's House passage at a White House ceremony with President Trump, MacArthur faced a very different crowd back home.

MacArthur was met with hundreds of angry voters in his district for nearly five hours, with residents heckling and booing his attempts to sell voters on the bill and defend the plan. 

MacArthur said he chose to go to the Democratic part of his district for his first town hall because of the health care bill's passage. He said he wants to represent both the Democrats and the Republicans in his district, and he's aware of the "anxiety" over health care. "Whether it's fun or not, I owe you that," he said.

"More than half of the no votes for the AHCA came from Tuesday Group members, despite almost every one of our members voting numerous times to repeal the ACA," MacArthur said in his letter. "Arguably we have a Congressional majority because of this very issue. Frankly, inaction on healthcare was a non-starter for me, and it should be for our entire party. We owe it to the American people who elected us to fix the Obamacare mess. Just because it's hard cannot become an excuse to do nothing."

The Senate is now working on its own bill to replace the Affordable Care Act.  

MacArthur added that while he was grateful to his colleagues across the political spectrum, it is now clear "some in the Tuesday group have different objectives and different sense of governing than I do."