Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) accused Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) and President Donald Trump of trying to take President Obama’s name off of Obamacare and call it their own.
Video of Amash:
Rep. Justin Amash: They're "taking the Obamacare framework and trying to call it a Republican piece of legislation" https://t.co/tdXrjP0WWr
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 8, 2017
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Amash told CNN, “I don’t see how this bill goes anywhere. It certainly doesn’t have 218 votes, and I think they are basically taking the Obamacare framework and trying to call it a piece of Republican legislation, and that’s not what the people back home asked for.”
Rep. Amash went on to say that he thinks the Republicans can get a bill through the House, but he doesn’t think that Republicans can get this bill through the House.
Trump is trying to sell the replacement as a Republican bill, but it is easy to see that House Republicans slapped the legislation together like a college student trying to meet a finals week paper deadline.
When examining the Republican bill, it does look like Republicans tried to keep the Obamacare framework and just remove what they didn’t like and replace it with Republican ideas. The subsidies become tax credits. The individual mandate is now a thirty percent penalty if people don’t have insurance. The Medicaid expansion has been replaced by a block grant that cuts Medicaid.
Republicans didn’t come up with their own legislation. They tried to take a red pen to Obamacare and jam a square peg into a round hole.
House Republicans have no real ideas on health care, and they have no plan that will lower costs and cover everyone. What Republicans are offering isn’t Obamacare lite. It is their bizarro world version of health care where people pay more money for less coverage.
No matter why you hate it, Trumpcare looks dead in the water.
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
