Politics

Romney on Cruz filibuster: ‘There’s a better way of getting rid of Obamacare’

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
Font Size:

On Friday’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” on CNN, 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said using a threat of a government shutdown is the wrong way to prevent implementation of Obamacare.

In a wide-ranging interview on foreign  and domestic policy, the former Massachusetts governor weighed in on the budget fight being waged on Capitol Hill.

Romney said that while agrees with those who want to stop Obamacare, he didn’t endorse the idea of using the shutdown.

“Well, again, they’re all — we’re all fighting for the same thing, which is finding a way to repeal or replace or repair, slow down Obamacare,” Romney said. “So those are — we don’t like Obamacare and would like to see a different course taken.  And there are differences of opinion as to which tactics will be most effective. I look at Sen. Cruz and say, look, you give him credit for extending and speaking for 20-plus hours.  You give him credit for bringing attention to a very important issue.

“I have a harder time seeing where a shutdown leads because I don’t know that you’re going to get a Democrat Senate and a Democrat president to say, ‘OK, fine — we’ll get rid of Obamacare,’” Romney continued. “I think there’s a better way of getting rid of Obamacare — my own view and that is, one, delaying it by at least a year. The other would be potentially working hard to get Republicans elected to the House and Senate and they’d be able to do in a traditional way. So that’s the approach I’d take, but look, we’re all in the same page as to where we want to get and I’m not going to get too animated about the tactics of one Republican versus another. Time will tell who is the most effective in trying to get this very unfortunate piece of legislation stopped in its tracks.”

Later in the interview, Romney also took aim at President Barack Obama for not working harder to reach across the partisan divide to end so-called dysfunction in government.

“There’s no question that the political dysfunction is the cause of many of the problems of the country,” he added. “And leadership is what is able to break through the kind of dysfunction you’re saying, and unfortunately we haven’t seen the kind of leadership in the White House. The president spends his time attacking the opposition party and a surprising malevolent intent to their values and their purposes.  That’s my opinion, an enormous mistake on his part.  You’ve got to reach across the aisle.”

Follow Jeff on Twitter