Rand Paul Gives Graham/Cassidy a New Name: ‘Amnesty for ObamaCare’

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Sep 19, 2017
Twitter/@RandPaul

Senator Rand Paul is shaking things up in the Senate as always, this time giving the Graham/Cassidy bill a new name — “Amnesty for Obamacare.”

Senator Paul, a career physician, has been a vocal opponent of Graham/Cassidy bill in favor of a full repeal. He has lead the fight against plans in both houses of Congress, referring to the proposals as “ObamaCare Lite” and demanding more significant changes.

“These have been plans that have spent nearly as much money as ObamaCare, that left most of the taxes and regulations in place, and basically failed to honor our promise of repeal,” the Kentucky senator wrote in an op-ed for Fox News.

The bill was introduced last week by Senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham, and aims to roll back the Obamacare Medicaid expansion and give money from deconstructing ACA programs to states so that they can run their own health care programs. Senator Paul argues that it is actually just “a redistribution of ObamaCare taxes and a new Republican entitlement program, funded nearly as extravagantly as ObamaCare.”

“This isn’t a repeal. This is keeping Obamacare and redistributing the proceeds,” Paul told CNN. “So, this is not a repeal bill, this is sort of, ‘Hey, we’ll take Obamacare, replace it with Obamacare, but we’re going to let the states have a little more power in how we spend it.'”

Senator Paul has pointed to the fact that Graham/Cassidy does not repeal a single ObamaCare insurance regulation. He also wants people to understand that the new bill would still spend 90 percent of what we currently spend on ObamaCare.

“Graham/Cassidy won’t fix our health care problems, and it will become a permanent drain on the treasury – one that is already $20 trillion in debt, with a $700 billion deficit next year,” Paul’s op-ed continued. He argued that a full repeal, as the GOP has repeatedly promised, would saved over a trillion dollars in spending over 10 years.

The outspoken senator also blasted the major sales pitch being used to push the bill, that “if you like your ObamaCare, you can keep it.”

“That’s nice, but I don’t like it, I don’t want to keep it, and I don’t want to keep paying for it.  So how about we all keep our word and get rid of it?” Paul wrote.

Despite pleas from his colleagues to get on board, Senator Paul will not be doing so, and has vowed to vote no on amnesty for Obama’s failed healthcare legacy.

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