Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed back against President Barack Obama’s claim that Republicans have no alternative to his failing healthcare law, telling Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren “this is a president that has a difficult time telling the truth.”
The Republican leader sat down with Van Susteren to dispute Obama’s accusation that Republicans were merely obstructionists with no plan of their own:
VAN SUSTEREN: The president spoke yesterday and he had a lot of harsh words, but one of the thing he said is that the GOP has no plans in reference to healthcare. He also said that you have refused to answer the question of what benefits someone could have who doesn’t have healthcare under Obamacare, so he specifically targets you.
McCONNELL: One of the things the American people have really learned firsthand here in the last few weeks is the president has a very difficult time telling the truth. This is the guy who said if you have your insurance and you like it, you’ll get to keep it. Now, we knew at the time that was not true. He knew at the time it was not true. and now his suggestion that we don’t have an alternative, he knows is also not true. What we wouldn’t have done is pass a 2,700 page bill that takes a trillion dollars away from healthcare providers and costs — and causes millions of Americans to lose the healthcare plans that they have and like. We would have gone in a different direction. To use a medical metaphor, instead of taking a meat ax to the American healthcare system, we would’ve pulled out a scalpel and done things like interstate health insurance — small businesses, allow them to pool together in order to purchase insurance cheaper; medical malpractice reform at the federal level. Imagine how much money is lost every year with unnecessary tests. Those are the kinds of things that we would have done.
McConnell also called Obamacare a “catastrophe” for both businesses and those without insurance, claiming that 30 million would remain without coverage even if the law proves a success.
“We need to pull it out root and branch and start over,” he said.
But McConnell doesn’t think the president will budge.
“He’s going to protect this monstrosity,” he said. “He’s going to jam it down our throats no matter what… The American people don’t like this stubborn resistance to accept the fact that this is simply not working out.”
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