Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Thursday tore into Republicans in Washington, who he accused of being on the precipice of surrendering on both immigration and health care.
“We must repeal every single word of Obamacare — not a little bit, but all of it,” Mr. Jindal said at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. “At the same time that Republicans in Washington are about to wave the white flag of surrender on amnesty, they’re about to wave the white flag of surrender on repealing Obamacare.”
The possible 2016 GOP presidential contender said he didn’t recall them saying in campaign ads they’re just going to repeal the “easy parts” of Obamacare.
“They won elections in red states. They won elections in blue states. They won elections in purple states,” he said. “It is time for them to govern the way they campaigned and get rid of Obamacare.”
“We don’t need ’Obamacare-lite,’” he said. “We don’t need a second Democratic party … we need principled, conservative Republican[s].”
The election, he said, was not about a new office for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky or a bigger office for House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio; it was about “taking our country back. And it starts by repealing Obamacare.”
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As Mr. Jindal alluded to, Republicans have also been busy debating a plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security past this week. Mr. McConnell agreed that provisions blocking President Obama’s immigration executive actions would be stripped from a funding bill and be voted on separately, but Mr. Boehner would not say what he’ll do when the “clean” funding bill gets to the House.
Mr. Jindal also called for a repeal of the Common Core education standards, which are a thorn in the side of many conservatives, and hammered Mr. Obama for his handling of the Islamic State terrorist group.
“We must win the war against radical Islamic terrorists,” Mr. Jindal said, arguing that Mr. Obama “has shown himself incapable of being our commander in chief.”
“He [says] we are not at war with Islam,” he said. “Well, certainly, we’re not at war with Islam, but we are at war with radical Islam.”
“If we have a president who won’t even identify the threat that we face, how can we count on him to effectively win…this war?” Mr. Jindal said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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