Sen. Rand Paul called out Congress for going back on its promise to repeal Obamacare, and said he cannot support a bill that keeps Affordable Care Act spending in place during a Wednesday interview on “Fox and Friends.”
“I wish we would just repeal it,” Paul said. “There’s probably no bigger opponent of Obamacare than myself. As a physician I’ve seen Obamacare up close and personal. It’s a terrible system. But we promised to repeal it. We didn’t go to Tea Party rallies and shout, I didn’t hear anybody chanting ‘hey guys let’s keep Obamacare and let’s divvy it up to the states and mess with the formula so we take some money from the Democrats and give to Republicans.’ We said we’d repeal it. We didn’t say we’d keep it and block grant it.”
Paul said he spoke with President Donald Trump, and was convinced that the White House would legalize the sale of health insurance across state lines.
“He [Trump] assures me that he is going to legalize the sale of across state insurance through associations. Which means any individual, millions of individuals in our country will be able to buy insurance through a group. Get cheaper prices, and get a better product,” he said. “Obamacare is going to get worse. We will get other chance but we should also do some things that are good for the country, and good for health care immediately.”
The Kentucky senator said there were some things in the latest GOP repeal bill that he liked, but the block grants portion was a deal breaker for him.
“There were some good things in the bill. I liked expansion of health savings accounts. I liked giving governors waivers. I liked repealing the mandates and I liked capping the entitlement. I just didn’t like the block grants,” Paul said. “If you’ll give us a narrow focus I’m a yes. But I couldn’t in good conscience vote to just keep the Obamacare taxes and keep the Obamacare spending and reshuffle it to the states.”
Paul called out his colleagues for voting for a full repeal under former President Barack Obama, and then backing out under Trump.
“We need to keep our promise. Repeal Obamacare and then if you want to talk about free market reforms, replacement can be free market reforms. Legalizing choice, I’m all for it. But the first thing you have to do is keep your promise. Keep your pledge to the voters, and that’s to repeal Obamacare,” he concluded.
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