Cotton, Boozman Support Another Try At Obamacare Repeal
A scheduled vote to partially repeal and replace Obamacare was cancelled this week due to a lack of support in the U.S. Senate.
Republican Senators now plan to try to pass legislation that would repeal Obamacare after a two-year delay.
Sen.
John Boozman said in an e-mail to The Arkansas Project that it’s “clear that an agreement on the proposed legislation to repeal and immediately replace Obamacare is not in the cards.”
Boozman said:
That should not be taken as an indicator that our commitment to provide relief to the millions of Americans who have been hurt by Obamacare has weakened by any means. Americans deserve a system that ensures access to affordable, quality care for all and we intend to make that a reality.
I support the Majority Leader’s decision to move forward with a repeal of Obamacare with a transition period, so we can work together to replace this failed program with market-based solutions that will bring the changes that Obamacare, and all its broken promises, simply cannot deliver.
Sen.
Tom Cotton said in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt that he supported another attempt at repealing Obamacare.
Cotton said:
The American health care system is still groaning under the weight of Obamacare. That’s why we can’t simply accept failure as an outcome. I’m pleased to see that Sen. McConnell has said that we’re going to move forward with the very bill to repeal Obamacare on which 49 Republican Senators voted just 18 months ago. I know that both John Kennedy and Luther Strange, two new Republican Senators over the last year, would vote for that bill as well.
I don’t see how any Republican Senator who voted just 18 months ago for this very piece of legislation could now flip flop 18 months on with Obamacare still inflicting so much harm on Americans and given the fact that we’ve campaigned on this for four straight elections.
The main difference between this legislation 18 months ago (when it passed the Senate) and now is that now there’s actually a President in the White House who would likely sign it into law. President Obama vetoed this legislation in January of 2016.
While it’s admirable that Cotton and Boozman are still committed to Obamacare repeal, it remains to be seen whether enough Republicans will join them. Voting for Obamacare repeal was largely a symbolic action while President Obama was in office. It’ll be interesting to see if there’s enough support in the Senate — now that voting for repeal means something — to produce a bill that would actually be signed by President Trump.
