Mitch McConnell Tells Americans with No Healthcare, ‘You Aren’t an Issue’

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:52 pm

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Mitch McConnell admitted that Republicans don’t care if Americans don’t have healthcare by stating on Fox News Sunday that uninsured Americans aren’t an issue.

Here is the video:

Transcript via Think Progress:

WALLACE: One of the keys to ObamaCare is that it will extend insurance access to 30 million people who are now uninsured. In your replacement, how would you provide universal coverage?

MCCONNELL: Well first let me say the first single thing we can do for the American system is get rid of ObamaCare. … The single biggest direction we can take in terms of improving health care is to get rid of this monstrosity. […]

WALLACE: But you’re talking about repealing and replace, how would you provide universal coverage?

MCCONNELL: I’ll get to it in a minute. […]

WALLACE: I just want to ask, what specifically are you going to do to provide universal coverage to the 30 million people who are uninsured?

MCCONNELL: That is not the issue. The question is, how can you go step by step to improve the American health care system. … We’re not going to turn the American health care system into a Western European system.

McConnell advocated for modest reforms, and claimed that the Republicans want to take a scalpel to the American healthcare system, as he argued on behalf of the same tired ideas that Republicans always try to pass off as healthcare reform. McConnell pushed buying insurance across state lines and tort reform. The one common denominator in all the Republican solutions is that they will do nothing to insure more people.

Sen. McConnell frankly admitted that the Republican Party doesn’t care getting more Americans access to healthcare. The uninsured aren’t an issue. They don’t matter. In order to defend his position that the uninsured don’t really need healthcare, McConnell claimed several things that flat out weren’t true. McConnell claimed Obamacare kills jobs when in reality, it creates them. He stated that America has the best healthcare system in the world, when in reality the U.S. healthcare system is one of the worst in developed world. The U.S. system is 37th in the world. If this is what Republicans consider the best, then we now know what they mean by “American exceptionalism.”

Congressional Republicans are trying to revive their Obamacare lies because they are running out of time. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that after the Supreme Court ruling support for the ACA jumped 11 points with Independents and 5 points with Republicans. Overall, support for the law jumped 5 points from 43% to 48%. If the ACA crosses the threshold and is supported by a majority of Americans, Republicans will find themselves on the wrong side on another issue.

The GOP is motivating their base by reading from their book of Obamacare lies, but they are bringing nothing new to the table for everyone else. Voters heard all of this in 2009 and 2010. The GOP problems are being compounded by the fact that Democrats are taking advantage of their new chance to sell the law by explaining the good things in the ACA.

If Republicans want to campaign on healthcare instead of the economy and jobs, more power to them, they are more than welcome to adopt Mitch McConnell’s talking point that the uninsured don’t matter.

McConnell’s comments confirm that the American people come last in the minds of the Republican Party. That’s going to make one heck of a campaign slogan for Democrats in November.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association