Speaker of the House Paul Ryan warned that if Congress fails to pass the GOP bill to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, there will be dire consequences for millions of Americans.
Ryan firmly believes his bill — the American Health Care Act — is the best and the only effective solution to fixing the post-Obamacare health care system. “Let me put it this way: Obamacare is collapsing. If we just did nothing, washed our hands of the situation, we would see a further collapse of the health insurance markets,” Ryan said Sunday on “Face The Nation.” “If we don’t act, the system is going to collapse.”
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The speaker faces some significant obstacles in getting his bill through Congress. On the one hand, congressional Democrats are lambasting the Republican platform, warning it would increase deficit spending, exacerbate premium increases, and effectively leave millions of Americans without health insurance.
On the other, some Republicans, like Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Jim Jordan, are labeling it simply Obamacare under a different name.
Th House leadership plan is Obamacare Lite. It will not pass. Conservarives are not going to take it. #FullRepeal
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 7, 2017
The House leadership Obamacare Lite plan has many problems. We should be stopping mandates, taxes and entitlements not keeping them.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 7, 2017
Jordan chimed in on “Fox News Sunday” to say, “Understand the speaker’s plan doesn’t repeal ObamaCare. Even Charles Krauthammer said that, called it ObamaCare-light, as you said earlier. It doesn’t bring down premiums and it doesn’t unite Republicans.” The representative is urging his fellow members to “get focused and build some momentum to actually replace ObamaCare with something that’s going to bring down costs.”
For their part, Democratic leadership agrees with the Republican dissenters, claiming the bill doesn’t have legs to stand on and the divisions among Republicans make it blatantly clear. “It was easy [for Republicans) to be critical of Obamacare when you thought it would stay in place. Now that the chance of repeal is real, people are much more worried,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. “We are on offense and united. They are on defense and divided, the opposite of what people would have predicted a month or two ago.”
Ryan acknowledges that, with any major legislation, it is going to be difficult to please everyone. He hopes, however, that through the negotiation process, Congress will arrive at a solution that works for all consumers. “Look, when you are a governing party getting consensus among your wide, big-tent party, not — everybody doesn’t get what they want, but we are getting much better policy here,” Ryan said Sunday.
President Donald Trump has firmly endorsed Ryan’s platform, calling it “our wonderful new health care bill.”
Leading in to the impending vote on the repeal platform in Congress, the president is doubling down on his support. In a seemingly endless stream of tweets, Trump is calling on Republican leadership to come together and “save the day.”
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