Sen. Ron Johnson slammed Obamacare on Morning Joe, trying to make the case that delaying the healthcare reform is a smart idea.
“The Democrats jammed through, on a 100% partisan basis, a huge reform. They didn’t do the work of trying to get a bipartisan consensus on trying to do healthcare reform—” Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, said on Morning Joe.
“Excuse me, senator, that’s not true!” former White House healthcare adviser Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel interrupted.
“Dr. Emanuel please!” Johnson said, going on to say that the Senate’s delays over the weekend aren’t giving the Republican-controlled House enough time to work on a budget deal. “The root cause of the problem is that this is an incredibly partisan, very divisive bill and we’re dealing with that now.”
“Alright, doctor, now you can talk, I won’t interrupt you. Jeez,” Johnson said.
Emanuel countered that the healthcare law had been validated by the people many times and Republicans had missed the boat on getting involved when the bill was being written.
“We ran an election, Obama versus McCain in 2008 on healthcare, Obama won,” Emanual said. “We worked for 14 months to get bipartisan support…We had one word from the Republicans, which was nyet,” he said, using the Russian word for no.
“Then we went it alone. We had another election, the 2012 election, on Obamacare, and Obama won. The country has said over and over again that they support this reform. Republicans have never given a coherent alternative that controls cost—” Emanuel said.
“That’s not true!” Johnson interrupted.
“This still isn’t ready for prime time,” Johnson said. “Listen, doctor, I think you’re a smart guy, but I don’t think you know how to take over 1/6 of our economy and do it well and that’s why I’m opposed to this thing. It’s going to do great harm to our health care system. It’s going to bankrupt our budget further. It’s gonna really be an assault on our personal freedoms.”
Jane Timm