With massive technical glitches marring the website and a slew of cancelled policies, the GOP is back on offense against Obamacare.
Republicans are facing record-low approval ratings (just 22%, according to the latest NBC poll) thanks to their most recent ploy to take down Obamacare. But they’re not done yet, Sen. John Thune said optimistically on Morning Joe.
“It’s nice that the Democrats have let us get it back on offense, Nicolle, because as you know we’ve been taking a lot of punches here lately, but I think this presents an opportunity to talk about alternatives, positive alternatives,” Thune said. “We’re just all very grateful to the president and Democrats that now that the shutdown’s over, we’re talking about something else.”
He said the president’s promises have been shown to be “broken promises;” he referenced the Washington Post’s latest Fact Checker column, which found the president’s statements to be mostly false.
“When you get four Pinocchio’s from the Washington Post for saying if you like your insurance you can keep it, period, and then you have all these people are having their policies canceled,” Thune said. “It makes it very clear that if the White House likes your insurance you can keep it, but if you like it, you might not be able to.”
Democrats have argued that Obamacare does change health care policies—for the better—by weeding out scam policies and making better policies more affordable.
But Thune still sees a foothold for GOP attacks.
“The way that this was rolled out, the rhetoric around it, the whole narrative now is being completely undermined,” Thune said. “It’s an opportunity for us as Republicans not just to attack this, but to say we’ve got a better way.”
Would they be content to better the policy, instead of trying to replace it?
“I think most of us believe as Republicans that it’s built on a faulty foundation, the policy itself is bad, and it’s going to crumble,” Thune said. “Of course we would like to go back and do this over.”
Jane Timm