Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio: House attack on Obamacare ‘simply isn’t good enough’

A trio of Senate Republicans — two of them 2016 presidential hopefuls — say a fast-track bill to gut Obamacare “simply isn’t good enough” because it doesn’t fully repeal the president’s signature health law.

Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah said they owe it to their constituents to reject the GOP-authored bill set for a House vote in the lower chamber on Friday.

“Each of us campaigned on a promise to fully repeal Obamacare and a reconciliation bill is the best way to send such legislation to President Obama’s desk,” they said. “If this bill cannot be amended so that it fully repeals Obamacare pursuant to Senate rules, we cannot support this bill.”

Mr. Cruz and Mr. Rubio are pursuing the GOP nomination for president.

Their opposition comes days after the political arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation issued similar complaints about the bill, which uses a budget process known as reconciliation to repeal Obamacare’s insurance mandates and unpopular taxes, while defunding Planned Parenthood for one year over its abortion practices.

Other conservatives groups, including the Family Research Council and National Right to Life Committee, have backed the legislation, citing its strike against Planned Parenthood in the wake of undercover videos that appeared to show organization officials negotiating the sale of fetal body parts for research.

Such transfers are legal only if they’re not done for profit.

Reconciliation leverages budget instructions to pass legislation on a filibuster-proof basis in the Senate, so long as it meets arcane rules.

Already, its Republican sponsors stripped out a provision that would repeal Obamacare’s yet-to-be-named board on Medicare spending, since the Senate parliamentarian stood ready to rule it out of order.

Although President Obama can still veto what Congress produces, Republicans want to prove they can repeal Obamacare with a simple Senate majority and a GOP president in 2017.