Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul wrote a blistering op-ed Wednesday that excoriated the GOP health care bill meant to replace the Affordable Care Act and said the new legislation does not repeal Obamacare at all.
Paul’s opposition to the bill began the moment it was made available from GOP leadership for him to read. He was joined in his public objection by GOP Sens. Mike Lee (Utah), Ron Johnson (Wis.), and Ted Cruz (Texas). While both Paul and Cruz believed that a compromise on the bill’s contents could be reached, no changes have been satisfactory enough to sway the dissenting senators.
In the op-ed, which was cross-posted on Paul’s official Senate website, the senator began by blasting the GOP for turning away from its promise to repeal Obamacare, instead saying Republicans are “falling all over themselves to stuff hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars into a bill that doesn’t repeal Obamacare and feeds Big Insurance a huge bailout.”
Citing the GOP’s inclusion of an multibillion-dollar insurance bailout fund to help stabilize the markets when premiums inevitably rise, Paul wrote: “Now, the Senate GOP plan being put forward is chock full of insurance bailout money – to the tune of nearly $200 billion. Republicans, present company excluded, now support the idea of lowering your insurance premium by giving a subsidy to the insurance company.”
Originally published by the Blaze.
