Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R) has once again thrusted himself into the healthcare debate by pushing back against President Trump and the US Congress’ latest efforts to repeal and replace the Obamacare law.
Paul says that we will not vote in favor of the Graham-Cassidy bill, the latest senate bill aimed to so-call repeal the disastrous healthcare law.President Trump has already nudged Paul regarding opposition to the bill, calling him a “negative force” when it comes to tying to fix the nation’s existing healthcare problems that have arisen due to Obamacare.
I hope Republican Senators will vote for Graham-Cassidy and fulfill their promise to Repeal & Replace ObamaCare. Money direct to States!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2017
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While Paul’s past push backs against military and foreign spending could be seen as questionable at best, his staunch opposition to any senate bill that does not fully repeal and replace Obamacare is warranted.
Paul, like most Republican members of the US Congress ran for office on the promise to completely repeal and replace Obamacare if elected.I hope Republican Senators will vote for Graham-Cassidy and fulfill their promise to Repeal & Replace ObamaCare. Money direct to States!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2017
Anything less than a full repeal is a non-started for Paul, and it appears that he will stick to his guns on this notion.
Paul tweeted about the senate healthcare and equated it to the 2013 Senate “Gang of 8” immigration bill that all-but granted amnesty for illegal aliens living in the U.S.
This new "gang" bill is another Grahamnesty, this time for Obamacare. Conservatives have seen this before.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 20, 2017
During an interview with NPR’s Ari Shapiro, Paul explained why he would not support the Graham-Cassidy healthcare bill, a bill that Trump calls “great.”
Paul also divulged that Senate Republicans were not serious about repealing and replacing Obamacare, rather playing politics by “simply messing with the Democrats by taking the money from Democrat states and giving it to Republican states.”
PAUL: You know, as a physician, I’ve seen Obamacare up close, and I don’t think it’s been good for the country. Premiums in the individual market have doubled. People are unhappy with the cost of insurance. There’s many counties around the country where nobody has any insurance. So no, I’m absolutely opposed to Obamacare, and I promise to repeal it. I’ve introduced repeals but have also introduced replacement bills.
The problem I have with this current bill is it basically keeps the Obamacare spending, keeps the Obamacare taxes – most of them – and then actually just redistributes the money from Democrat states to Republican states. So I don’t think this really fixes a problem, nor does it honor our pledge to repeal Obamacare, so…SHAPIRO: But by voting against it, are you in effect letting the perfect be the enemy of the good?
PAUL: You could maybe say I’m letting perfect be the enemy of a really crappy bill. I mean this bill isn’t anywhere near perfect. It’s not even anywhere near good. Look at it this way. Usually appropriation bills labor through a process very public with public scrutiny and appropriation committees. This is not going to any committee, and it’s a trillion-dollar appropriation.
SHAPIRO: I’m sure you’ve had conversations with Senator Graham and Senator Cassidy, the sponsors of this bill. Are there any changes they could make that would get you to flip your vote?
PAUL: Well, the thing is – is that I’m not for Obamacare. They basically immortalize Obamacare. They just do a little bit less spending than is in the current form of Obamacare, and they redistribute the proceeds of Obamacare spending to Republican states.
SHAPIRO: So nothing they could change that would flip your vote.PAUL: Well, it’s a really bad (laughter) idea. The whole thing has nothing to do with repeal. It has to do with keeping Obamacare and simply messing with the Democrats by taking the money from Democrat states and giving it to Republican states. But it keeps in place most of…
SHAPIRO: OK. I’m going I take that to mean your vote is set in stone (laughter).
