Republicans Will Try To Repeal Obamacare If They Do Well In Midterms, Mike Pence Vows
Vice President Pence vowed that the Republican Party will try to repeal Obamacare again if they do well in midterms, The Hill reports.
While campaigning for GOP Senate candidate Leah Vukmir in Wisconsin, Pence told reporters the following.
“We made an effort to fully repeal and replace Obamacare and we’ll continue, with Leah Vukmir in the Senate, we’ll continue to go back to that.”
As The Hill noted, in order to have another crack at repealing Obamacare, the GOP would need to maintain control of the House and gain more Senate seats. If, and until the repeal happens, Vice President Pence said, the Republican Party will continue to “open up cheaper options for consumers.”
Naturally, Wisconsin Democrats oppose the repeal. But, according to Pence, the Trump administration is actively encouraging healthcare innovation, in an effort to lower costs, letting the marketplace regulate itself.
“The real answer is to allow people across Wisconsin and across America to have more choices to allow the marketplace to breathe. And so our administration is taking every step that we can through administration action and through regulatory policy to encourage innovation in health care to lower the cost of health care.”
Following these comments, Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson accused Pence and the GOP of crafting a “hidden plan,” with the end goal of repealing and replacing Obamacare.
Interestingly, Pence’s statements contradict what Donald Trump suggested in late 2017. As Politico reported, the POTUS boasted that his administration had already repealed Obamacare by getting rid of mandate requiring Americans to buy insurance, but the individual mandate is, Politico noted, merely a part of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
According to data published by Time, Obamacare played a key role in slashing personal bankruptcy in the U.S.
Pence: GOP plans to try again to repeal ObamaCare if elections go well https://t.co/aJkSxdP0BU pic.twitter.com/eTh3tnxVSq
— The Hill (@thehill) August 31, 2018
In any case, there can be no repeal without Senate seats, so in the context of Obamacare repeal, midterm elections are key for the Republican Party. An NBC News/GenForward poll released Wednesday indicated that key Democratic Party demographic, millennials, appears to be disillusioned about midterms.
According to the poll, although millennials hold mostly unfavorable views of the Republican Party, their impression of the Democratic Party remains split between unfavorable and favorable views.
As the Vox reported, a July poll suggested that healthcare would dominate midterm campaigns. The same poll found that Democrats were soft favorites to win a House majority. However, “everything could still go wrong” for the Democratic Party, Vox concluded.
President Donald Trump will inevitably play a part in midterms. As the Inquisitr previously reported, a highly divisive figure, Trump – or rather talks of Trump’s impeachment – is creating a rift between Democratic voters, and Washington Democrats, and this could impact midterm elections as well.
