Republicans turn their attention to bashing Obamacare as shutdown enters day 39

Amid a 39-day government shutdown, Republican after Republican took to the Senate floor on Saturday to blast the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, calling the program a failed approach to addressing the country’s health care needs.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., went as far as to say the current system might need replacing.

“You were promised when Obamacare passed in 2010, President Obama said, that every family in America who participated in this thing would have a $2,500 savings in premium reductions. It’s been like a 100% increase. This thing is unsustainable,” Graham said.

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“We’re going to replace this broken system with something that is actually better for the consumer to meet the goal of lowering health care costs,” Graham added.

Graham wasn’t the only Republican voice to speak out against Obamacare. 

“I hate to report that folks on the other side refused to acknowledge the very obvious damage being done across the board by Obamacare,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said. “The problem we have in healthcare is we’ve largely driven free-market principles out of healthcare. That’s because of the faulty design of Obamacare. It’s got to be fixed.” 

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., a former health care executive and longtime critic of the program, joined in.

“It’s all caused by Obamacare. When the government gets involved in things, they often go up in price,” Scott said. 

Notably, Republican criticisms of Obamacare on Saturday went beyond the front-and-center issue holding up consideration of government funding.

Where Republicans have advanced a short-term spending package meant to keep the government open through Nov. 21, Democrats have rejected it 14 times, demanding that lawmakers first consider extending COVD-era emergency tax subsidies for Obamacare plan holders. 

Republicans, who maintain the temporary subsidies and their expiration have nothing to do with government spending, have largely focused their attention on the shutdown itself instead of engaging in a debate over the COVID-era assistance. They’ve said they will negotiate on the subsidies when the government reopens.

But President Donald Trump changed the picture on Saturday morning in a post to Truth Social by arguing that lawmakers should re-structure the enhanced subsidies so that they go directly to the policyholders instead of insurance companies who currently receive the tax credit payments.

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In the wake of Trump’s suggestion, lawmakers began blasting Obamacare’s structure.

“Obamacare costs the federal government closer to $150 billion a year. That’s right. We’re spending $150 billion of your tax-earned dollars supplementing other people’s health care,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said.

“When they sold this to the American people, they said it would cost $40 or $50 billion, but we’re triple that. That’s $400 million a day,” he added.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, echoed those comments, arguing that Obamacare had missed the mark on its original design. 

“It’s clear that Obamacare has failed to deliver on its promises,” Ernst said. “The answer isn’t throwing more money into a broken system. What we need to do is fix what’s broken. We can end that waste.”

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Like Ernst and Marshall, Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio., also took to the floor, calling for Congress to evaluate the source of climbing health care costs.

“So, I hope we want to get at the costs and the cause of what’s affecting the unaffordability of health care in this country. Health care has increased since Obamacare started by 6% a year while overall inflation has been 3% or less,” Husted said.

“I hope we will reopen the government and begin serving the American people while we continue the very important conversation of how we make health care more affordable,” he added.

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Although Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has kept the Senate in session over the weekend while lawmakers attempt to break the gridlock, it’s unclear when lawmakers will next consider spending legislation.