Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO), who ousted Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) on Tuesday, said on Sunday that a full repeal of the health care law isn’t realistic.
“I do think we need to repeal and replace Obamacare, but the president named Obama is not going to repeal a bill named Obamacare,” Gardner said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The senator-elect said that the GOP should focus on small bills that address specific aspects of the law.
“And so let’s put on his desk things like repealing the medical device tax, making sure that we can repeal the IPAD board. These are things that have bipartisan support,” Gardner said. “Restore the 40-hour workweek. These have bipartisan support, and it shows the American people that we are serious about our intention to govern.”
In the weeks preceding the election, numerous Senate Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), acknowledged that a full repeal won’t happen, even with a GOP Senate.
Gardner later added, “As Republicans, we are committed to having our cake and eating it too.”
“Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO), who ousted Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) on Tuesday, said on Sunday that a full repeal of the health care law isn’t realistic.”
Well knock me over with a feather!
I guess he’s overlooking those nine folks in Black who are looking at this law again.
Well no shit, Sherlock. But don’t forget the power of symbolism.
The extreme base of the Republican party has convinced itself that Gardner and the rest won in no small part on a promise to repeal Obamacare. They don’t want to hear it can’t be done. It’s not even about the ACA itself anymore, it’s the desire to strip away Obama’s signature accomplishment and handing him a defeat. Any effort to tinker with it, legitimizes it as law in their eyes, and that they won’t abide. The insistence that the law is illegitimate is a proxy for their belief that Obama himself is an illegitimate President.