When asked about Obamacare, aka, Kynect, in last night’s debate, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) floundered. This was supposed to be the Grand GOP Plan for 2014, but it turned around and bit McConnell in the bum — just as we predicted it would years ago. It’s Obamacare’s revenge.
The Republican Senator was doing fine in his debate against Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, until he hit the Obamacare wall, as I pointed out last night:
Obamacare tripped Mitch McConnell up tonight. After that, he had nothing. Ironic.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
— Sarah Reese Jones (@srjones66) October 14, 2014
And then it all went downhill for Senator McConnell.
Kynect is the name for the Obamacare exchange in Kentucky- you know, the one Kentuckians like and don’t know is really Obamacare — The mechanism through which 521,000 Kentuckians got insurance.
This is what McConnell wants to kill. So he stumbled and tried to obfuscate around Kynect, “Kentucky Kynect is a website. It was paid for by a $200 million some odd grant from the federal government. The website can continue. But my view the best interest of the country would be achieved by pulling out Obamacare root and branch.”
An empty website selling nothing? That’s a new take on both capitalism and health insurance. So basically it will be an empty website. And Republicans gloated about the Obamacare rollout glitches.
As soon as the words came out of his mouth:
McConnell is going to keep Kynect but offer no insurance through it. An empty website. Talk about a glitch, Mitch.
— Sarah Reese Jones (@srjones66) October 14, 2014
“With regard to Kynect, it’s a state exchange,” McConnell continued in his dodge from his ACA lies. “They can continue it if they’d like to.”
No, they can’t. Kynect is an Obamacare exchange. Without Obamacare there is no Kynect. What would they be selling if Obamacare is repealed, since the Medicaid expansion would also be gone?
McConnell tried to act like Kentuckians would not be losing their insurance, saying, “They’ll have to pay for it (Kynect), because the grant will be over. And with regard to the Medicaid expansion, that’s a state decision. States can decide whether or not to expand Medicaid or not. In our state, the governor decided to expand Medicaid.”
So, you like your insurance and want to keep it? Mitch McConnell will let you keep the website, but not the other stuff. The other stuff would be the insurance and Medicaid expansion sold and delivered through the website. So, in other words, Mitch McConnell is selling y’all nothing as a replacement for Kynect.
That Medicaid you got under Kynect? McConnell is saying he’s going to kill it. He just doesn’t have the guts to run against Obamacare now that you have your insurance and you like being covered.
So head's up, Kentucky — McConnell won't be keeping Medicaid expansion under Obamacare if he wins, aka Kynect
— Sarah Reese Jones (@srjones66) October 14, 2014
Here’s the super duper awesome Republican plan to run against Obamacare in action: “It’s fine, yeah. I think it’s fine to have a website. Yeah.”
Could the Senator not have anticipated this question? Republicans need to come up with a better lie than “Yeah, you can have a website.”
The only glitch in sight is Mitch McConnell’s answer on whether or not Kentuckians can keep their insurance. This time, someone really is going to take it away and it’s not Alison Lundergan Grimes. It’s Mitch McConnell.
After Obamacare bit him in the bum, McConnell could not get his mojo back.
Meanwhile, Alison Lundergan Grimes came prepared. She was on point, assertive but warm, and touched on just enough policy to prove that she had a plan but not so much that she drowned in her own weeds. She gained momentum throughout the debate, and Obamacare – the issue Mitch McConnell thought he was going to pummel her with — actually worked in her favor as she expressed concern that McConnell didn’t seem to care about all of those Kentuckians who would lose their coverage if he wins.
Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
