With most Republicans backing the Graham/Cassidy healthcare bill, there is at least one Republican senator who’s still vocal in his opposition. His name?
Senator Rand Paul.
Unlike his colleagues, who don’t take their promises to American voters seriously, Senator Paul continues to call for the complete and total repeal of ObamaCare, the horrendous health care bill pushed through Congress by former President Obama and his Democratic allies.
I was thinking this all sounds familiar…amnesty?#GrahamCassidyِ: Amnesty for Obamacare.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 19, 2017
“No one wants to repeal ObamaCare more than I do,” the senator from Kentucky writes at FoxNews.com. “As a career physician, there are few in Congress who have as much firsthand experience on all sides of the health care debate as I do. I’ve voted for repeal. I’ve sponsored my own Repeal and Replace plans.”
However, he goes on: “I’ve also led the fight to stop and block ObamaCare Lite’ plans offered in both houses of Congress this year. These have been plans that have spent nearly as much money as ObamaCare, that left most of the taxes and regulations in place, and basically failed to honor our promise of repeal.”
And yes, that’s exactly what the now infamous Graham/Cassidy bill is, Rand Paul explains:
In all ways, this bill is also ObamaCare Lite. In no way is it repeal the way we promised. I will oppose this bill as I did the other fake repeal bills, and I urge those who want repeal to do so, as well.
Graham/Cassidy doesn’t repeal a single ObamaCare insurance regulation. All of the Title 1 rules, the Essential Health Benefit rules, all of them – they’re still in place here.
States may grovel on bended knee for some relief to the federal government, with no guarantee of success and no permanent solution beyond the current administration.
As Senator Paul points out, even the bill’s supporters admit that it will end up spending 90 percent of what the U.S. currently spends on ObamaCare. Those more critical of the bill say that amount is closer to 95 percent. In either case, the conclusion is obvious: Americans didn’t vote for Republicans last year to repeal only 5 or 10 percent of ObamaCare.
“Graham/Cassidy won’t fix our health care problems, and it will become a permanent drain on the treasury — one that is already $20 trillion in debt, with a $700 billion deficit next year,” Paul continues. And that is unacceptable.
I’m worried about what happens when premiums continue to go up double digits (and they will). I’m worried about what happens when the system continues its downward spiral, but this time it is “GOP/TrumpCare” that gets blamed. And they will.
That’s why he can only say “No thanks” to his Republican colleagues in the Senate. “This bill is no better than the last attempt and should receive no more support. It should not pass. I’ll vote no, and I’ll fight to stop the newest ObamaCare Lite plan,” he concludes.
During an interview with CNN, Paul added:
This isn’t a repeal. This is keeping Obamacare and redistributing the proceeds. So, this is not a repeal bill, this is sort of, “Hey, we’ll take Obamacare, replace it with Obamacare, but we’re going to let the states have a little more power in how we spend it.”
If the establishment thought they could get Rand Paul to support that, well, they’re sorely mistaken.
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