Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) encouraged the Republican Party to hold back, come up with an alternative to Obamacare and let the health care law undermine itself in an interview that aired Sunday.
ABC’s Jonathan Karl asked Bush what his message would be to Tea Party lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who were so set on repealing the health care law that they were willing to risk shutting down the government and a potential debt crisis to dismantle it.
“I think the best way to repeal Obamacare is to have an alternative,” Bush said on “This Week.” “We never hear the alternative. We could do this in a much lower cost with improved quality based on our principles, free market principle. And two, show how Obamacare, flawed to its core, doesn’t work.”
The former Florida governor then suggested the bumpy rollout of Obamacare exchanges could have better made the case against the law than the GOP’s strategy to threaten a government shutdown if the law wasn’t defunded. Some Republicans were furious when media coverage of congressional jockeying over government funding seemed to eclipse coverage of the glitchy rollout.
“So have a little bit of self-restraint,” Bush continued. “It might actually be a politically better approach to see the massive dysfunction. But we don’t even hear about that, because we stepped on that message.”
