President Barack Obama used his weekly address Saturday to blast Republicans in Congress who have pledged to attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act and risk a government shutdown.
Obama denounced the “group of Republicans in Congress” who he said are “working hard to confuse people, and making empty promises that they’ll either shut down the health care law, or, if they don’t get their way, they’ll shut down the government.”
“Think about that. They’re actually having a debate between hurting Americans who will no longer be denied affordable care just because they’ve been sick – and harming the economy and millions of Americans in the process,” Obama said. “And many Republicans are more concerned with how badly this debate will hurt them politically than they are with how badly it’ll hurt the country.”
He added, “Your health insurance isn’t something to play politics with. Our economy isn’t something to play politics with. This is not a game. This is about the economic security of millions of families.”
Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Minority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), have tried to splash cold water on the effort to defund Obamacare led by Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY). McConnell even rightly pointed out that a government shutdown “won’t stop Obamacare.” But the pushback from GOP leadership has sparked something of a revolt among hard-line conservatives.
Obama blasted the GOP last week over its “ideological fixation” to repeal Obamacare.
