As he blasted House Republicans for passing a bill that aims to defund the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama said Friday during a speech in Kansas City, Mo. that voters rendered a judgment on the law when they chose him over Mitt Romney in last year’s election.
“Now let’s put this in perspective. The Affordable Care act has been in the law for three and a half years, it passed both houses of Congress, the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional, it was an issue in last year’s elections, the guy who was running against me said he was gonna repeal it, we won,” Obama said, drawing applause.
“So the voters were pretty clear on this,” he added.
Hours before Obama’s speech, House Republicans passed a continuing resolution that will provide funding for the government but defunds Obamacare, a move that raises the risk of a government shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has made it clear that the bill is dead on arrival in the Senate.
The vote by the House also shifts much of the onus on the likes of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has led the quixotic effort to defund the law for months. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) told TPM on Friday that Cruz and company “got the fight they asked for.”
