Obama Drops The Hammer on Republicans and Shatters Their Obamacare Repeal Fantasy

President Obama dropped the hammer on the Republican fantasies of repealing Obamacare. He also challenged Republicans to reveal their own healthcare plan.

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The president said,

That seems to be the only alternative that Obamacare’s critics have. We’ll just go back to the status quo, because they sure haven’t presented an alternative. If you ask many of the opponents of this law what exactly they’d do differently, they’re answer seems to be well let’s go back to the way things used to be.

Just the other day the Republican leader in the Senate was asked what benefits people without healthcare might see from this law, and he refused to answer. Even though there are dozens in this room and tens of thousands in his own state who are already on track to benefit from it. He just repeated repeal over and over and over again, and obviously, we’ve heard that from a lot of folks on that side of the aisle.

Look, I’ve always said that I will work with anybody to implement and improve this law effectively. If you got good ideas, bring ’em to me. Let’s go. But we’re not repealing it as long as I am president. I want everybody to be clear about that.

We will make it work for all Americans. If you don’t like this law. If despite all the millions of people who are benefiting from it you still this law is a bad idea, then you’ve got to tell us specifically what you’d do differently to cut costs, cover more people, make the insurance more secure.

You can’t just say the system was working with 41 million people without health insurance. You can’t just say the system’s working when you’ve got a whole bunch of folks who thought they had decent insurance and then when they got sick it wasn’t there for them, or they were left with tens of thousands of dollars in out of pocket costs that were impossible for them to pay.

Right now, what that law is doing. Right now what this law is doing is helping folks, and we’re just getting started with the exchanges. Just getting started with the marketplace, so we’re not going to walk away from it. If I have to fight another three years to make sure this law works, that’s what I’ll do. That’s what we’ll do.

President Obama is going to be in the White House for three more years, and he is not going to budge an inch on the ACA. The president was calling out the Republicans on two different levels. He was shattering their fantasy that they can repeal the ACA if they take back the Senate in 2014, and he was challenging Republicans to offer an alternative on healthcare.

Republicans don’t want to offer an alternative on healthcare, because then they will be forced to admit that their alternative is to do nothing. President Obama’s remarks today suggest that Democrats feel like the momentum is shifting back to them on healthcare. The numbers are coming in, and it is clear that the ACA is working.

Remember how the media and Republicans said that the ACA website had doomed the Obama presidency? Not so much. Obama doesn’t look like a president in crisis now.

President Obama has the high ground, and he’s smashing the delusions of the ACA’s opponents.

Give it up, Republicans. Repeal is never going to happen.

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