http://cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/cruz-terrain-has-changed-and-i-believe-we-will-repeal-obamacare#sthash.i7AHYCku.K4DP37eo.dpufCruz: 'The Terrain Has Changed and I Believe We Will Repeal Obamacare'
January 30, 2014 - 3:26 PM
By Barbara Hollingsworth
(CNSNews.com) – Calling Obamacare a “Rube Goldberg-like contraption” that has caused more people to lose their health insurance than those who are enrolled in the exchanges, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) revised his previous assessment that once the government subsidies kicked in, it would be “ impossible to repeal Obamacare” because Americans would become “addicted to the sugar.”
“We are seeing the fruits of the battle that so many millions of Americans engaged in last fall to stop Obamacare, and I think the direct result of that fight was to elevate the national debate over the harms that Obamacare has caused,” Cruz said during a Wednesday conference call with reporters and bloggers. “And as a consequence, I think the terrain has changed and I believe we will repeal Obamacare."
Cruz noted that “momentum was building” to repeal President Obama’s signature health care law even among groups that had previously supported it.
“I believe that the American people have grown to understand what an absolute disaster this law is, that it is killing millions of jobs, forcing millions into part-time work, has already resulted in over five million people losing their health insurance and that it is producing skyrocketing premiums for people all over this country.
“And I think as a result of so many Americans speaking out and really highlighting the consequences, we’re seeing the popularity of Obamacare plummet. We’re seeing it becoming increasingly unpopular with young people, with Hispanics, with independents, with Democrats.
"And as long as we keep the focus on the manifest failures – the people who are being hurt because of Obamacare – the case will continue to be made that it has to be repealed.”
Pointing out that President Obama “did not say a single word to the five million people whose health insurance polices have been cancelled because of Obamacare” during Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Cruz said that “if the purpose of this law was to extend insurance to 330,000 people who were uninsured, it would have been a heck of a lot cheaper to just write a check to each of those 330,000 people for a million bucks apiece.
“If we had done that, it would have cost only one-sixth of what Obamacare is going to cost and it wouldn’t have caused over five million people to lose their health insurance, it wouldn’t have caused millions of people to lose their jobs or be forced into part-time work, [or] to see their premiums skyrocket.”
Cruz said he was “still looking at the details” of a plan to replace Obamacare proposed Monday by Senators Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) ,Richard Burr (R-N.C). and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that would eliminate the federal mandates, and instead use tax incentives based on age and income to encourage individuals to buy health insurance and business owners to provide it.
“What was most striking was that within minutes of the plan being announced, the White Hosue immediately began attacking it….Given that the plan had been announced moments before, they were blasting the plan without reading the details,” Cruz said.
The Texas Republican held a 21-hour filibuster on the Senate floor last September in an unsuccessful attempt to stop Senate Democrats from funding Obamacare on a straight party-line vote.
