Bernie Sanders And Ted Cruz Will Debate Obamacare On CNN Tuesday Evening
Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) will be debating the subject of Obamacare on Tuesday, February 7 at 9:00 p.m. EST on CNN, the network has announced. According to CNN, it will be formatted as a Town Hall style debate, and it will be moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
Obamacare, which is officially known as the Affordable Care Act, was a big subject throughout the 2016 Presidential Election. Obamacare was first passed in 2010 when the Democrats controlled both houses of congress, as well as the White House.
JUST IN: Sanders to debate Cruz live on CNN https://t.co/kmYX1omNsE pic.twitter.com/EdsxdOzv4t
— The Hill (@thehill) February 1, 2017
Though Republicans have made many attempts to repeal the law, it has remained in place. Also, on two separate occasions, the Supreme Court of The United States ruled in favor of certain parts of the law, as USA Today describes. With a Republican-controlled House and Senate and a Republican President now in the Oval Office, the GOP now appears to have the best chance to repeal Obamacare since it was passed nearly seven years ago.
President Trump has repeatedly promised to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. After he was elected President last November, however, he did say in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he was open to keeping certain parts of the law, such as allowing adult children to stay on their parent’s insurance until the age of 26 and covering those who have preexisting conditions.
Per Business Insider, President Trump has already signed an executive order which calls to “ease the burden of Obamacare.” However, Business Insider also describes how it still remains to be seen which “replacement plan” the GOP will bring to the floor in the weeks ahead, pointing out that “multiple conflicting plans” currently exist in both chambers of Congress.
Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz are each coming off of presidential campaigns. Though they both came up short of securing a major party nomination, both presidential candidates ran long and hard campaigns and were able to draw significant approval and many, many supporters.
Sanders, who has openly described himself as a “Democratic Socialist,” sought the Democratic nomination for president and finished behind Hillary Clinton. Sanders ran a campaign that energized many voters, but with the help of superdelegates, Clinton eventually crossed the threshold of 2,383 delegates to secure the nomination, as Politico described. Sanders, who later went back to being an Independent, endorsed Clinton for president
Ted Cruz, a strong conservative and fierce defender of the constitution, finished second to Donald Trump on the GOP side. Though Cruz did not endorse President Trump when he spoke at the Republican National Convention last summer, he eventually did so in September. Per CNN, President Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees played a big role in Cruz’s decision to endorse President Trump.
Senator Cruz has already come out in support of Neil Gorsuch, who President Trump nominated for the Supreme Court on Tuesday. In an interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News, Cruz called Judge Gorsuch “a home run.”
CNN to air debate between @BernieSanders and @tedcruz https://t.co/QLaL6uOlYt pic.twitter.com/8U5piclNSJ
— POLITICO (@politico) February 2, 2017
Senator Sanders, it obviously appears, will be defending the Affordable Care Act during the debate. However, as Business Insider describes, Senator Sanders “hasn’t always been [Obamacare’s] biggest supporter,” and he ran on his belief that the Affordable Care Act “didn’t go far enough.”
“The Vermont senator campaigned for president in 2016 partially on the promise of expanding the federal government’s role in healthcare through a single-payer system.”
Like his one-time opponent President Trump, Senator Cruz has long been a critic of Obamacare. As Business Insider points out, not only did Cruz campaign strongly against the law during his recent presidential campaign, he was a big part of the government shutdown in 2013, which was over Obamacare. Senator Ted Cruz stood on the Senate floor for 21 hours, giving a long and detailed anti-Obamacare speech.
The debate is scheduled to last for 90 minutes and will be hosted at The George Washington University, per CNN.
Will you be watching the debate between US Senators Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz?
[Featured Image by Alex Wong/Getty Images]
