Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson On Andy Puzder And “Repeal and Replace.”

[Valin]

Hugh Hewitt Show:

Hugh Hewitt

Feb 7 2017

 

Audio

 

(Snip)

 

RJ: Well, first of all, Republicans are absolutely dedicated to repealing, dismantling and repairing all the damage done by Obamacare. So I think a lot of people are getting hung up on words. Here’s the reality, Hugh. Obamacare now has been seven years in the making. It was passed in March, 2010, you know, four years getting ready to implement it. It’s been implemented for three years. It went from about 380,000 words to over 20 million. You know, the tentacles of Obamacare have wound themselves around our health insurance markets and our health provider markets. This is a beast, and it’s going to take time to dismantle. It’s going to be complex. So I think that’s, some of us are just kind of pointing this thing out that this isn’t quite so easy as just you know, a quick vote and magically we fix all these markets. There’s been a lot of damage done, and that’s going to take some time to unravel and repair.

 

HH: Now I am of the opinion that you can vote a death date. You could actually, via reconciliation, say every word of Obamacare is repealed by, say, August 1, 2018, and that gives you 18 months to come up with a replacement. Some Republicans want the replacement in place before they give a death date. I think that is a political disaster. What’s your opinion?

 

RJ: Well, I think you have to really, again, you’re making assumptions what we can do with 51 votes, which I think is a legitimate discussion and debate. I think we should press the parliamentarian far harder than we already have. And I think it’s also a legitimate debate to determine what we ought to do with Senate rules. But currently, using 51 votes, about all repealed when we first voted for this was the taxes and subsidies. And the real problem with Obamacare is literally all the market reforms, I would call them the market distortions, that have caused premiums to skyrocket, in Wisconsin, on the individual market, by doubling and tripling. Now let’s face it. The President of the United States says he likes the whole guaranteed issue – preexisting conditions. That accounts for about 50% of those premium increases. You know, the kids keeping, or young adults staying on the policy up to 26 years, hardly effects premium rates. So we need the information, we need to take a look at these things. And there’ll be some healthy debate. This is not, again, this is going to be complex. But from my standpoint, I think the way this thing rolls out is you first confirm Tom Price as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Obamacare gives him in those 20 million words a lot of discretion. And what he can do, he should do that. I mean, we’ll use executive authority to start the dismantling process. Once we find out how far he’s gone, I think we then, we really have a better basis for knowing what we need to enact in law, you know, what we need to over-regulate and what we need to over-legislate.

 

HH: But the thing, and I think you said the magic words. Getting rid of the mandate, getting rid of the tax penalty, and getting rid of what you can via reconciliation, I think is urgently necessary to deliver on the campaign promise. Some of your colleagues don’t want to do anything until everything is done. In that way lies doom, and I think rebellion by the Republicans, and the opportunity that 25 Democrats versus 8 republicans being up in now 22 months presents. What do you think?

 

(Snip)