Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, on Friday said lawmakers need to get going on fully repealing Obamacare and that calling for a “repair” of the law suggests there are parts of it worth fixing.
“Repair by definition implies that there’s something worth fixing. I would argue Obamacare is so bad, you got to get rid of every single bit of it,” Mr. Jordan said on Fox News. “Every tax, every regulation, every mandate.”
He said the law was packaged and sold to people on “lies,” like former President Barack Obama’s pledge that people could keep their plans if they liked them.
“This thing was a complete disaster, and to say we’re going to repair something implies that you can actually fix something, that there’s something worth fixing. I would argue there’s not. This needs to be repealed … that’s what we told the voters we were going to do,” he said.
Mr. Jordan also said he didn’t want to see a three- or four-year “off-ramp.”
“I don’t think the voters would like us to go get rid of Obamacare, but it’s not effective until 2019, 2020,” he said. “It needs to take place this Congress … that’s what we told the voters we were going to do.”
Some GOP legislators have been using the “repair” term recently to talk about a potential approach to rolling back the law. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said this week that’s just semantics and the plan is to fully repeal and replace the law.
Asked about a replacement, Mr. Jordan said health care would get better and cost less by repealing the law and putting in reforms like expanding health savings accounts, opening up insurance to be sold across state lines, and block granting Medicaid to the states.
“That is the replace, in my judgment: Repeal it first and replace it with those market-oriented, family-oriented principles,” he said.
Mr. Jordan and Rep. Mark Meadows, North Carolina Republican, on Thursday called on House GOP leadership to take up a repeal bill that lawmakers already sent to Mr. Obama’s desk in a previous Congress.
Mr. Meadows currently chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus. He replaced Mr. Jordan as the chairman.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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