Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 17, 2021)
Individual mandate is constitutional even with $0 tax

Vox.com summary:The CA v. TX case was brought by Texas officials who object to ObamaCare, centered on the law's individual mandate [which] required most Americans to either obtain health insurance or pay higher taxes. In 2017, Congress amended ObamaCare to zero out this tax. The Texas plaintiffs claimed that this zeroed-out tax is unconstitutional and also claimed that the entire law must be declared invalid if the zero dollar tax is stuck down. In a 7-2 ruling, the Court ruled that no one is allowed to bring suit to challenge a provision of law that does nothing.

Biden in Reuters:"A big win for the American people," President Joe Biden, whose administration opposed the lawsuit, wrote in a Twitter post, adding that millions of people rely upon the law for healthcare coverage while encouraging others to sign up. Biden has pledged to expand healthcare access and buttress ObamaCare. Biden had criticized Republican efforts to strike down the law during a pandemic.

Amy Coney Barrett on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 17, 2021)
Individual mandate is constitutional even with $0 tax

In a 7-2 ruling, the Court ruled that no one is allowed to bring suit to challenge a provision of law that does nothing: "The IRS can no longer seek a penalty; there is no possible Government action that is causally connected to the plaintiffs' injury."

SCOTUS outcome:Authored by Breyer; joined by Roberts; Thomas; Sotomayor; Kagan; Kavanaugh; and Barrett. Thomas also wrote a concurring opinion. Alito and Gorsuch dissented.

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 2, 2021)
Re-open ACA enrollment; restore ObamaCare to pre-Trump level

PROMISE KEPT:(Executive Order on Medicare 1/28/21): It is the policy of my Administration to protect and strengthen Medicaid and the ACA and to make high-quality healthcare accessible and affordable for every American. In light of the exceptional circumstances caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, establish a Special Enrollment Period for uninsured and under-insured Americans to seek coverage through the Federally Facilitated Marketplace.

OnTheIssues ANALYSIS: Biden made his promise at the beginning of the pandemic, and all healthcare policy in 2021 is tied up with the pandemic. Biden has largely restored ObamaCare cuts--by reopening ACA enrollment--and largely subsidized ObamaCare--via pandemic spending and pandemic justification.

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 22, 2020)
ObamaCare plus a public option makes BidenCare

BIDEN: What I'm going to do is pass ObamaCare with a public option, and become BidenCare. The public option says that if you qualify for Medicaid and you do not have the wherewithal in your state to get Medicaid, you automatically are enrolled, providing competition for insurance companies. That's what's going to happen. Secondly, we're going to make sure we reduce the premiums and reduce drug prices by making sure that there's competition, that doesn't exist now, by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with the insurance companies. Thirdly, the idea that I want to eliminate private insurance, the reason why I had such a fight with 20 candidates for the nomination was I support private insurance. That's why. Not one single person with private insurance would lose their insurance under my plan, nor did they under ObamaCare. They did not lose their insurance unless they chose they wanted to go to something else.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 22, 2020)
Biden will terminate 180 million healthcare plans

BIDEN: Not one single person with private insurance would lose their insurance under my plan, nor did they under ObamaCare. They did not lose their insurance unless they chose they wanted to go to something else.

TRUMP: I terminated the individual mandate. That is the worst part of ObamaCare. The individual mandate where you have to pay a fortune for the privilege of not having to pay for bad health insurance. Now, it's in court, because ObamaCare is no good. Then I made a decision, run it as well as you can. They ran it. Premiums are down. Here's the problem. No matter how well you run it, it's no good. What we'd like to do is terminate it.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 15, 2020)
Replace ObamaCare with less expensive but great healthcare

TRUMP: We got rid of the individual mandate on ObamaCare. By the way, we're always protecting people with pre-existing conditions, and I can't say that more strongly. The problem with ObamaCare, it's not good. We'd like to terminate it, and we want a much less expensive healthcare that's a much better healthcare.

Q: You repealed, but you haven't replaced. You had the Senate and House in Republican hands, and there is not a replacement yet.

TRUMP: Look, we had both houses and what did we do? We got rid of the individual mandate. That went through the legislature.

Q: But the promise was repeal and replace.

TRUMP: We would like to replace it with something that's much less expensive and much better. We will always protect people with preexisting conditions.

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 15, 2020)
Pre-existing conditions are in jeopardy from Supreme Court

BIDEN: I think that healthcare overall is very much in jeopardy as a consequence of the President's going to go directly after this election directly to the Supreme Court within a month to try to get ObamaCare wiped out after 10 million people have already lost their insurance from their employer and wants to take 20 million people out of the system as well, plus 100 million people with pre-existing conditions.

TRUMP: We got rid of the individual mandate on ObamaCare, and now you could actually say it's not ObamaCare because you had to pay a fortune for the privilege of not having to pay for bad health insurance, so we got rid of that. By the way, we're always protecting people with pre-existing conditions, and I can't say that more strongly. The problem with ObamaCare, it's not good. We'd like to terminate it, and we want a much less expensive healthcare that's a much better healthcare.

John Hickenlooper on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 2, 2020)
ACA led to successful state marketplace & Medicaid expansion

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Sep 29, 2020)
My healthcare plan: we got rid of the individual mandate

TRUMP: That's right, because they want to give good healthcare

Q: Over the last four years, you have promised to repeal and replace ObamaCare, but you have never come up with a comprehensive plan to replace ObamaCare.

TRUMP: Yes, I have. Of course I have. I got rid of the individual mandate, which was a big chunk of ObamaCare.

Q: That's not a comprehensive place.

TRUMP: That is absolutely a big thing. That was the worst part of ObamaCare. The individual mandate was the most unpopular aspect of ObamaCare. I got rid of it. And we will protect people. We guaranteed pre-existing conditions, but took away the individual mandate.

BIDEN: He has no plan for healthcare.

TRUMP: Of course we do.

BIDEN: He has none, like almost everything else he talks about. He does not have a plan.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Sep 29, 2020)
ObamaCare is no good, even if run well

TRUMP: No, I want to give them better healthcare at a much lower price, because ObamaCare is no good.

BIDEN: He won't ever look you in the eye and say that's what he wants to do: "Take it away." He doesn't know how to do that.

TRUMP: We've already fixed it, to an extent. ObamaCare is no good. We made it better. We guaranteed pre-existing conditions, but took away the individual mandate. I had a choice to make, do I let my people run it really well or badly? If I run it badly, they'll probably blame me. But more importantly, I want to help people; I said, "You've got to run it so well." The problem is, no matter how well you run ObamaCare, it's a disaster. It's too expensive. Premiums are too high, that it doesn't work. So we do want to get rid of it. Chris, we want to get rid of that and give something that's cheaper and better.

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Sep 29, 2020)
Public option won't end private insurance; only for Medicaid

BIDEN: It does not. It's only for those people who are so poor they qualify for Medicaid they can get that free in most states, except Governors who want to deny people who are poor Medicaid. Anyone who qualifies for Medicaid would automatically be enrolled in the public option. The vast majority of the American people would still not be in that option.

Amy Coney Barrett on ObamaCare: (Health Care Sep 22, 2020)
Opposes ObamaCare and its religious exemption

Barrett also signed a letter to the Obama administration critical of the ACA's religious exemption calling it a "cheap accounting trick," and an "assault on religious liberty."

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Aug 28, 2020)
FactCheck: Undercut protection for preexisting conditions

FactCheck: His administration has consistently taken steps to undermine the Affordable Care Act without presenting alternative plans that would offer similar benefits. Congressional Republicans have also repeatedly put forward bills and filed lawsuits that would weaken Obamacare's protections for people with preexisting conditions.

Trump said, "Last month, I took on Big Pharma and signed orders that will massively lower the cost of your prescription drugs," and also promised to "further reduce the cost of prescription drugs."

FactCheck: The President signed four executive orders aimed at reducing drug prices, but it's far from clear whether they will ever take effect or greatly lower prices if they do. Also, drug prices have continued to rise during the Trump administration, though the growth rate has slowed by some measures.

Stacey Abrams on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 9, 2020)
ObamaCare navigators explain new health insurance systems

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 9, 2020)
COVID19: make sure there's free testing & free treatment

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 15, 2020)
Restore all cuts made to ObamaCare, then add more

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 5, 2020)
ObamaCare: not great but we're managing it fantastically

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 20, 2020)
Public option for ObamaCare; $50 billion for research

BIDEN: I would restore all the cuts this president has made in the Affordable Care Act, across the board. I add what they call a public option, and that is a Medicare-like option. If you wanted to buy into that option or if you didn't have the money, you would be able to get it for free. So it's Medicare if you want it. If you qualify for Medicaid and you don't have it in your state, you're automatically enrolled. There is no waiting for anything.

Secondly, we make sure we reduce drug prices, as well, allowing Medicare to be able to negotiate with the drug companies the cost of drugs. And I would invest over $50 billion to focus on the diseases that cause the most damage and cost the most--cancer, Alzheimer's, and obesity.

We should have a department that says what we're going to do is spend the money needed that the drug companies are unwilling to spend or unable to spend to make sure that we find cures.

Mike Bloomberg on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 19, 2020)
I am a fan of ObamaCare; I've praised it; let's expand it

BLOOMBERG: I am a fan of ObamaCare.

BIDEN: Since when, Mr. Mayor?

BLOOMBERG: I just checked the record, because you'd said one time that I was not. In '09, I testified and gave a speech before the mayors' conference in Washington advocating it and trying to get all the mayors to sign on. And at that time I wrote an article praising ObamaCare.

BIDEN: Didn't you call it "a disgrace," though, Mr. Mayor?

BLOOMBERG: I was in favor of it. I thought it didn't go as far as we should. What Trump has done to this is a disgrace. The first thing we've got to do is get the White House and bring back those things that were left and then find a way to expand it, another public option, to having some rules about capping charges. All of those things. We shouldn't just walk away and start something that is totally new & untried.

BIDEN: The mayor said, when we passed it, "it's a disgrace." They're the exact words. Look it up.

Amy Klobuchar on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 19, 2020)
Don't blow up ObamaCare with Medicare-for-All

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 19, 2020)
Got ObamaCare passed and will expand it

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 14, 2020)
Add mental health parity to ObamaCare, with Biden option

Mike Bloomberg on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 24, 2019)
Expand ObamaCare & Medicare

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 20, 2019)
Reform healthcare, don't force folks off private insurance

Joe Walsh on ObamaCare: (Health Care Sep 24, 2019)
2013: engage in civil disobedience to defy ObamaCare

On healthcare:
• Walsh is a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act, known as "ObamaCare," and supports repealing the law in favor of a free market system.
• In 2013, Walsh suggested breaking the law and to "engage in civil disobedience" to defy ObamaCare in Chicago.
• While in Congress, Walsh supported several bills that aimed to either repeal ObamaCare in its entirety or to strip key aspects of the law.
• Back in 2010, Walsh opposed government-sponsored health insurance in a Chicago Tribune questionnaire. "I am opposed to a government sponsored health care system. We need only look to the health care systems in Canada or Great Britain to see evidence of this. I support Republican proposals such as allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines, tort reform, and Medical Savings Accounts to reduce costs. Allowing competition across state lines and eliminating these costly mandates will reduce costs for most people," Walsh wrote.

Joe Walsh on ObamaCare: (Health Care Sep 24, 2019)
Look at things like universal catastrophic care coverage

Walsh: This would probably be, if I'm elected president, the issue I would start with. There is no more important issue in this country than this. We've got the American people living longer and longer. That's a good thing. But how we pay for the health care for all of these Americans living longer? You've got Republicans out there saying nothing. Because they're afraid to talk about health care. It would be the issue I'd want to lead a discussion on.

Q: What would you do?

Walsh: We have to take care of and make sure that people in need in this country and those people with chronic health care conditions are always taken care of and never have to worry about their health care needs the rest of the American people need to begin paying for the day to day health care costs and then look at things like universal catastrophic care coverage.

Mike Pence on ObamaCare: (Health Care Sep 14, 2019)
Replace ObamaCare with new plan with Congressional support

In private meeting at the White House, Pence consistently reassured Trump that they would have the votes needed to do away with ObamaCare, create a new healthcare plan, and put a new bill on the president's desk. But Pence's own long time adviser and confidant, Marc Short, consistently delivered a more pessimistic message to Trump, that the votes would be more difficult to come by. Short was right.

Elizabeth Warren on ObamaCare: (Health Care Sep 12, 2019)
How to pay for it? Wealthy people & corporations pay more

V.P. Joe BIDEN: I think we should have a debate on health care. I think Obamacare worked. I think the way we add to it, replace everything that has been cut, add a public option, guarantee that everyone will be able to have affordable insurance, number one. Number two, I think we should look at cost. My plan costs $740 billion. It doesn't cost $3.4 trillion a year. How are we going to pay for it? Thus far, Senator Warren has not indicated how she pays for it.

WARREN: We owe a huge debt to President Obama, who transformed health care. Now, how best can we improve it? I believe the best way we can do that is we make sure everybody gets covered by health care at the lowest possible cost. How do we pay for it? Those at the very top, the richest individuals and the biggest corporations, are going to pay more. And middle class families are going to pay less.

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Sep 12, 2019)
My plan builds on ObamaCare; adding $740B for public option

BIDEN: I think we should have a debate on health care. I think Obamacare worked. I think the way we add to it, replace everything that has been cut, add a public option, guarantee that everyone will be able to have affordable insurance, number one. Number two, I think we should look at cost. My plan costs $740 billion. It doesn't cost $30 trillion, $3.4 trillion a year, it turns out, is twice what the entire federal budget is. How are we going to pay for it? Thus far, Senator Warren has not indicated how she pays for it.

Sen. Elizabeth WARREN: Pres. Obama transformed health care. Now, how best can we improve it? I believe the best way we can do that is we make sure everybody gets covered by health care at the lowest possible cost. How do we pay for it? Those at the very top, the richest individuals and the biggest corporations, are going to pay more. And middle class families are going to pay less.

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jul 31, 2019)
Public option under ObamaCare covers vast majority for $750B

NYC Mayor Bill DE BLASIO: I don't know what the vice president is talking about. There's this mythology that folks are in love with their insurance in America. The folks I talk to say that their health insurance isn't working for them.

BIDEN: ObamaCare is working. The way to get to [ten million uninsured Americans] immediately is to build on ObamaCare. Take back all the things that Trump took away, provide a public option, meaning every single person in America would be able to buy into that option if they didn't like their employer plan, or if they're on Medicaid, they'd automatically be in the plan. It would take place immediately. It would move quickly. And it would insure the vast, vast, vast majority of Americans. In the meantime, what happens? Did anybody tell you how much their plans cost? My plan costs $750 billion. [Medicare-for-All costs] $30 trillion.

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jul 31, 2019)
Limit co-pays to $1,000; keep your own insurance

Biden: My plan makes a limit of co-pay to be $1,000, because we further support the ability to buy into ObamaCare. No one has to keep their private insurance, but if they like their insurance, they should be able to keep it. Nothing is demanded in my plan that there be private insurance. If the 160 million who have it like their employer insurance, they should have a right to have it. If they don't, they can buy into the Biden plan.

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jul 31, 2019)
Biden plan has public option; thinking otherwise is malarkey

Michael Bennet on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 27, 2019)
Medicare for 35M; private insurance for the other 295M

Sen. Bernie SANDERS: Every other major country on Earth, including Canada, somehow has figured out a way to provide health care to every man, woman, and child.

Q: Senator Bennet, you want to keep the system that we have in place with ObamaCare [instead of Bernie's single-payer system]. Is that enough to get us to universal coverage?

BENNET: I believe that will get us the quickest way there. There are millions of people in America that do not have health insurance today because they make too much money to be on Medicaid [but] can't afford health insurance. When Senator Sanders says that Canada is single payer, there are 35 million people in Canada. There are 330 million people in the United States, the number of people on a public option could easily be 35 million. And for them, it would be Medicare-for-all. But for others that want to keep it, they should be able to keep it. And I think that will be the fastest way to get where we need to go.

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 27, 2019)
Build on ObamaCare, with Medicare buy-in

Marianne Williamson on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 27, 2019)
We have a sickness care system; we need a healthcare system

Senator BENNET: We need to get to universal health care, by finishing the work we started with ObamaCare and creating a public option.

WILLIAMSON: While I agree with Senator Bennet, it's really nice if we've got all these plans, but we've got to get deeper than just these superficial fixes. We don't have a health care system in the United States. We have a sickness care system in the United States. We just wait until somebody gets sick, and then we talk about who's going pay for the treatment and how they're going to be treated. What we need to talk about is why so many Americans have unnecessary chronic illnesses, so many more compared to other countries. And that gets back into not just the health insurance and big pharma companies, it has to do with chemical policies, it has to do with environmental policies. It has to do with drug policies.

Bernie Sanders on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 27, 2019)
Medicare is most popular health insurance so let's expand it

Sen. Mike BENNET: Bernie has said over and over again that this [single-payer Medicare-for-All plan] will make illegal all insurance except cosmetic--I guess that's for plastic surgery. Everything else is banned under the Medicare-for-all proposal.

Sen. Bernie SANDERS: You know, Mike, Medicare is the most popular health insurance program in the country.

BENNET: I agree.

SANDERS: People don't like their private insurance companies. They like their doctors and hospitals. Under our plan people go to any doctor they want, any hospital they want. We will substantially lower the cost of health care in this country because we'll stop the greed of the insurance companies. On this issue we have to think about how this affects real people.

Joe Sestak on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 23, 2019)
Add public option to ObamaCare

Priorities:
• Restore the Affordable Care Act and advance it with a public option to expand access to health insurance.
• Let the success of the public option in cost and quality serve as incentive for the eventual transition of choice to a national healthcare system and begin laying the groundwork for a credible approach to such a system, modeled after the Veterans Health Administration, to establish comprehensive and integrated care across the country.
• Allow Medicare to bargain for the best drug prices directly with the pharmaceutical industry.
• Permit re-importation of less expensive drugs from Canada, while stopping big drug companies from "paying-for-the-delay" of cheaper generic drugs.
• Fix our broken mental health system beginning with full enforcement of the Mental Health Parity Act and key provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
• Remedy our shortage of nurses & doctors, particularly primary care physicians, as we change to integrated national healthcare..

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 23, 2019)
Decided not to kill ObamaCare, but still it's not good

Steve Bullock on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 18, 2019)
Build on ObamaCare but don't replace with single-payer

A: "My focus would be building off of the Affordable Care Act and improving it."

Jay Inslee on ObamaCare: (Health Care May 20, 2019)
Implemented statewide public option within ObamaCare

• The Washington government would contract with private health carriers to sell state-sponsored health insurance plans on its ObamaCare marketplace.
• The public option plan would be required to meet certain benefits and out-of-pocket requirements set by the state.
• The plan would pay health care providers 160% of Medicare rates, with a few limited exceptions.
• The state will explore increasing the eligibility for insurance tax subsidies from 400% of the federal poverty level (as set by ObamaCare) to 500%.

Justin Amash on ObamaCare: (Principles & Values May 20, 2019)
Nobody wins in a trade war

Seth Moulton on ObamaCare: (Health Care May 2, 2019)
Don't tie healthcare with job; cover pre-existing conditions

President Obama fought hard to pass the Affordable Care Act, which expanded healthcare coverage to millions of Americans, protected pre-existing conditions, and set the standard for coverage. But even under Obamacare, costs for healthcare are too high and climbing.

That's why we need a public option, which would give all Americans a choice between public healthcare and their current insurance. Doing so would create competition in the market, driving down prices and giving Americans what they deserve: lower prescription prices, cheaper premiums, coverage for pre-existing conditions, and better care.

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 25, 2019)
Expand ObamaCare, but not Medicare-for-All

Seth Moulton on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 23, 2019)
Improve ObamaCare but not single-payer

Tim Ryan on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 7, 2019)
Has supported Obamacare & single payer

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 1, 2019)
Republicans will always support Pre-Existing Conditions

"The Republicans are developing a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than ObamaCare," Trump continued. "In other words it will be far less expensive & much more usable than ObamaCare. Vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans win back the House."

Trump wrote online that the Republican proposal "will be truly great HealthCare that will work for America," and that "Republicans will always support Pre-Existing Conditions."

The president's comments come after his Justice Department endorsed a federal court ruling to eliminate ObamaCare in its entirety; Trump declared that the Republican Party "will soon be known as the party of health care."

John Hickenlooper on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 26, 2019)
Implemented ObamaCare and expanded Medicaid in Colorado

Andrew Yang on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 19, 2019)
ObamaCare is only a good first step

• Yang has called the Affordable Care Act a good first step but believes the law didn't do enough to reform the nation's health care system.
• He would shift the country toward a single-payer system, with a focus on salaried physicians and holistic medicine.
• The entrepreneur's health care platform also focuses on mental health.
• He has proposed funding artificial intelligence efforts that could improve mental health services and would create a "White House psychologist corps."

Amy Klobuchar on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 18, 2019)
Medicare-for-All for the future; public option now

A: I believe we have to get to universal health care in this country. We have to make sure that we build on the work of the Affordable Care Act. We need to expand coverage so that people can have a choice for a public option. You can do it with Medicare. You could also do it with Medicaid. This is a bill that I am an original co-sponsor of. It basically says let's expand Medicaid so you can buy into Medicaid and it will bring the prices down and we can cover more people. The other part of the equation is doing something about prescription drugs. I have one of the original bills to push to have Medicare negotiate prices, lift the ban, bring in less expensive drugs from Canada and stop the practice where pharma pays off generics to keep their products off the market.

Q: And Medicare for all?

A: I think it's something that we can look to for the future, but I want to get action now.

Howard Schultz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 12, 2019)
ObamaCare is ok, but Medicare-for-All goes too far

A: We have a health care crisis in the country on many levels. The Republicans have done everything possible to eradicate the Affordable Care Act without offering any plan -- this is the far right. The far left is now suggesting Medicare for all. That is a $32 trillion number. Does anyone understand that Medicare-for-all also means that you will lose the choice of your doctor and your private insurance company?

Q: Your alternative?

One, I think everyone in America, every person deserves to have the right for affordable care. Second, there needs to be competition in the system so that the American people can get access to prescription drugs at lower prices, because right now the government is not allowed under a federal law to negotiate with pharma. Third thing has been tested but not proven yet about interstate commerce among insurance companies.

Howard Schultz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 7, 2019)
False choice between socialized medicine & ObamaCare repeal

What's the truth? The truth is that healthcare costs are the biggest driver of unaffordable care. Yet neither side, extreme left, extreme right has offered and developed any kind of credible plan to reduce costs by increasing competition. Or requiring more transparency on prices from hospitals and drug companies. Or investing in preventive care. This is a problem that can be solved. We must bring down healthcare costs while increasing choice and access.

Xavier Becerra on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 5, 2019)
Latinos are the protagonists in protecting ObamaCare

1. In protecting the DACA program, we fought and won for 700,000 young people.
2. In protecting the Affordable Care Act, we are the protagonists. More than four million Latinos depend on the ACA for their health insurance.
3. In protecting college students against fraudulent loans, we fought and won for thousands of them.

Stacey Abrams on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 5, 2019)
Protect progress of ObamaCare, instead of lawsuits

My father has battled prostate cancer for years. To help cover the costs, I found myself sinking deeper into debt--because while you can defer some payments, you can't defer cancer treatment. In this great nation, Americans are skipping blood pressure pills, forced to choose between buying medicine or paying rent. Maternal mortality rates show that mothers, especially black mothers, risk death to give birth. And in 14 states, including my home state where a majority want it, our leaders refuse to expand Medicaid, which could save rural hospitals, economies, and lives.

Bill de Blasio on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 10, 2019)
Health care is a human right; fight for single-payer

Now, we want people to get it right all over the country. So we need to say yes to Medicare For All in Washington. We need to say yes to single payer in Albany.

But until they say yes back, New York City will lead the way. We will literally guarantee health care for every single New Yorker.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Dec 20, 2018)
FactCheck: Opposed ObamaCare's pre-existing condition law

"All Republicans support people with pre-existing conditions, and if they don't, they will after I speak to them," Trump tweeted in October. "I am in total support."

The Trump administration backed Republican-led states in a lawsuit that claims ObamaCare's protections for pre-existing conditions are illegal, and a federal court ruled the law unconstitutional in December. If the Supreme Court confirms the ruling, insurers would be able to start denying coverage to those people. The White House has not proposed alternative legislation that would offer those with pre-existing conditions the protections ObamaCare gives consumers. Supporting the concept of health care for people with pre-existing conditions, and supporting legislation that accomplishes it, are two different things.

Xavier Becerra on ObamaCare: (Health Care Dec 15, 2018)
133M people with pre-existing conditions rely on ObamaCare

Congress is unlikely to act while the case remains in the courts. Xavier Becerra, the California attorney general, vowed to appeal the decision. "Today's ruling is an assault on 133 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, on the 20 million Americans who rely on the A.C.A.'s consumer protections for health care, on America's faithful progress toward affordable health care for all Americans," Becerra said in a statement, obtained by The New York Times.

Stacey Abrams on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 4, 2018)
Paying for uncompensated care brings money back

ABRAMS: Georgia spends about $1.75 billion per year on uncompensated care. That's health care costs. By expanding Medicaid, we can join states like Kentucky that cut that number in half. That's savings that will go directly into providing access. My plan is to put money back into the pockets of hardworking Georgians. And all of the plans I have proposed, which are detailed, specific, and have pay-fors, all of those programs can be done under our current budget in the state of Georgia. What's more important is that the economic benefit to our state is dramatic, thousands of more jobs, thousands of good-paying jobs, access to health care coverage, and improvement for our state overall.

Q: So, you're telling Georgia families that none of them are going to have to pay higher taxes with you as governor?

ABRAMS: I do not intend to raise taxes. That is not the necessity.

Bernie Sanders on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 14, 2018)
Don't let Republicans do away with preexisting protection

SANDERS: You have a Republican leadership in the House and the Senate that tried, came within one vote of throwing 32 million people off of the health insurance they currently have. You have leadership there in the House and the Senate that wants to do away with the preexisting protections that people have in this country. You have a president and Republican leadership who supported a budget which would have cut Medicare by $500 billion.

Q: President Trump argues that Medicare-for-All could lead to worse coverage for many Americans who are happy with their private insurance plan. What do you tell them?

SANDERS: Right now, as a nation, we are spending twice as much per capita on health care as do the people of any other country, $28,000 a year for a family of four. That is unsustainable. 70% of the American people understand that Medicare is a good program, and it should be expanded to all people.

Beto O`Rourke on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 9, 2018)
Improve ObamaCare, including public option

Ted Cruz (R): Absolutely repeal. Caused millions to lose their jobs, be forced into part-time work, lose health insurance & doctors & pay skyrocketing premiums.

Beto O'Rourke (D): Keep but improve, including public option. Repeal would reduce healthcare access & benefits, make health insurance less affordable.

Ron DeSantis on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 9, 2018)
Repeal ObamaCare; health care isn't a right

Ron DeSantis (R): Voted to repeal ACA. No FL Medicaid expansion. Says health care isn't a right. The right is to pursue the type of healthcare you want. ObamaCare infringes on that.

Andrew Gillum (D): Support & strengthen ACA, guarantee care for pre-existing conditions, expand Medicaid in Florida. Work toward "Medicare for all."

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 9, 2018)
ObamaCare caused millions to lose their jobs

Ted Cruz (R): Absolutely repeal. Caused millions to lose their jobs, be forced into part-time work, lose health insurance & doctors & pay skyrocketing premiums.

Beto O'Rourke (D): Keep but improve, including public option. Repeal would reduce healthcare access & benefits, make health insurance less affordable.

Deb Haaland on ObamaCare: (Health Care Sep 9, 2018)
Fight Big Pharma for cheaper prescription drugs

A: Protect ObamaCare from the Republican attacks. I believe healthcare is a human right, and so I will fight for Medicare for All. It's time to end our overpriced, inefficient, and rocky corporate health care system. I will fight Big Pharma for cheaper prescription drugs. I will work to expand access to women's health care -- including abortion and contraception.

Arvin Vohra on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 30, 2018)
Lower medical costs come from price competition

A: Strongly oppose. Lower medical costs come from price competition, as has happened with laser eye surgery. Laser eye surgery is not covered by government insurance. Its price has dropped like a rock. EpiPen is covered by government; its price has skyrocketed. The free market lowers medical costs; government increases them.

Q: So what would you do with ObamaCare, repeal or replace, or some combination?

A: If elected, I will sponsor legislation to end the FDA, repeal Obamacare, abolish Medicare, abolish Medicaid, eliminate restrictions on foreign doctors practicing in America, and cut taxes accordingly.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 30, 2018)
The cruel ObamaCare individual mandate is gone

And we are giving our veterans choice in their healthcare decisions.

John Hickenlooper on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 11, 2018)
ObamaCare not perfect; it has helped but needs improvement

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 5, 2018)
Why can't Medicare simply cover everybody?

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Dec 29, 2017)
We have gutted ObamaCare by ending individual mandate

Gutted? Perhaps. Trump repealed a central pillar of ObamaCare: the "individual mandate," a requirement that Americans obtain health insurance or pay a financial penalty. The law might now experience new problems. But Trump is wrong to claim that he has already "ended" ObamaCare. The individual mandate is a key part of ObamaCare, but it is far from the entire thing. Trump did not touch ObamaCare's expansion of the Medicaid insurance program for low-income people, the federal and state ObamaCare marketplaces that allow other uninsured people to buy insurance, and the subsidies that help many of them make the purchases. Nor did he touch various ObamaCare rules for the insurance market, like its prohibition on insurers denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Dec 29, 2017)
OpEd: Ordered healthcare associations, but no follow-up

This has not happened. Trump issued an executive order on Oct. 12 to ask his Secretary of Labor to propose regulations to allow more employers to make use of "association health plans." But the actual change has not actually been made yet, noted Timothy Jost, an expert on health law as an emeritus professor at Washington and Lee University--so even if millions of people will eventually use these plans, they have, obviously, not been able to do so yet.

Trump added about people joining associations due to changes to ObamaCare, "That's gonna be a big bill, you watch."

The move toward association health plans is not going to be a bill at all, let alone a "big bill." This "would be a change in regulation or guidance," not legislation, Jost noted.

Steve Bullock on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 11, 2017)
Protect ObamaCare before pushing to expand further

But when I ask about the substance of Sanders' push for a universal Medicare system, he grows philosophical. "Divorce process and substance, and I think that we all know we spend way too much on health care. When we look at how the middle class hasn't gotten ahead for the most part, look at how health care costs have been going up--maybe that could have gone to, actually, wages. We all know we're probably the only industrialized nation that doesn't provide health care. There's a lot of ways to get there," he says. He then, unprompted, turns to the idea of liberal purity tests, amid talk among Sanders' supporters of punishing Democrats who opposed Medicare for All.

John Hickenlooper on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 29, 2017)
Too soon to make changes in Obamacare

Democratic governor John Hickenlooper said that "it would be premature to dramatically remake our health-care system at this time" while existing reforms were "just beginning to bear fruit." He complained behind closed doors to a powerful lobby of business leaders and political operatives that the "cost [is] going to be huge."

As California considered instituting a state-wide single-payer system on the eve of a possible GOP repeal of Obamacare, the state's Democratic governor Jerry Brown rubbished the idea, asking: "Where do you get the extra money? How do you do that?" He compared it to solving a problem "by something that's a bigger problem," which "makes no sense."

Cory Booker on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 12, 2017)
Repealing ObamaCare hurts working-class

BOOKER: That would be great if they were coming with open hearts and saying, "hey, this is not perfect, let's fix it." Even before the Affordable Care Act, I was the mayor of a city dealing with health care costs. They were going up significantly. So don't put this all on this ACA. I don't think you will find a Democrat or Republican who wouldn't honestly tell you that things weren't perfect before. And what we're saying in the Democratic Party is, "let's build upon it, let's fix it."

Q: Don't you have an obligation to join Republicans and try to improve the bill?

BOOKER: That's really where we are. The Republicans cannot just force this down our throats. It's going to knock a lot of folks off, hurt long-term care, hurt good working-class folks. Their political strategy is bad politics. But, deeper than that, it is bad policy and bad process.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 28, 2017)
Lower the cost of health insurance, instead of mandates

ObamaCare premiums nationwide have increased by double and triple digits. One third of counties have only one insurer on the exchanges--leaving many Americans with no choice at all. Remember when you were told that you could keep your doctor, and keep your plan? We now know that all of those promises have been broken. ObamaCare is collapsing--and we must act decisively to protect all Americans. Action is not a choice--it is a necessity.

Here are the principles that should guide the Congress as we move to create a better healthcare system for all Americans: First, we should ensure that Americans with pre-existing conditions have access to coverage, and that we have a stable transition for Americans currently enrolled in the healthcare exchanges.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Jobs Feb 28, 2017)
Two core principles: buy American, and hire American

This effort will be guided by two core principles: Buy American, and Hire American. Tonight, I am also calling on this Congress to repeal and replace ObamaCare with reforms that expand choice, increase access, lower costs, and provide better healthcare.

John Kasich on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 19, 2017)
Reforming ObamaCare ok; cutting coverage is not

KASICH [on video]: I don't know about you, but when I get to the pearly gates, I'm going to have an answer for what I have done for the poor."

Q: Republican leaders in Congress signaled this week they want to sharply reduce federal payments to 31 states. From your perspective, is that an un-Christian thing?

KASICH: There are 700,000 Ohioans who now get care who didn't have it before. A quarter of them have chronic conditions. And to turn our back on them makes no sense. Now, I believe there is an ability to reform, to repeal and replace ObamaCare which also includes a reform of Medicaid that will make the program more affordable, that will put us in a position of where we can continue to cover 20 million people and 700,000 in my state. And I'm not going to sit silent and just allow them to rip that out.

John Kasich on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 19, 2017)
Very, very bad idea to phase out Medicaid expansion

Bernie Sanders on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 7, 2017)
ObamaCare requires insurers to cover you, even at a loss

CRUZ: Bernie and the Democrats want government to control health care. I trust you. And I trust your doctors. I think health care works better when you're in charge of your family's health care decisions.

SANDERS: The Republicans are now in a panic, because the American people have caught on that the absolute repeal of ObamaCare without a plan to make it better, would be an absolute disaster. So when Ted talks about giving people choice, here's your choice. You got cancer, and you go to the doctor, and the insurance company says, "We're not going to cover it. We can't make money on you because you have cancer. You have a pre-existing condition." And here's another choice you can have if we get rid of ObamaCare. If you have diabetes, and you're spending a whole lot, the insurance companies will say, "sorry, we're only going to spend X dollars, because we've got to make money off you." That's the function of private insurance.

Bernie Sanders on ObamaCare: (Tax Reform Feb 7, 2017)
Raise funds in a progressive way, for ObamaCare & everything

SANDERS: No. It's not. But on the other hand, is it fair to not raise the revenue that we need to provide the kinds of benefits that we are providing? That is a way to do it. I don't think it's a particularly good way. I disagree with Ted, who wants to give, according to the "Wall Street Journal" and many other publications, incredible tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. In the wealthiest country in the world, we should raise funds in a progressive way, where the very rich are now doing phenomenally well--yes, I do believe they should be asked to pay more in taxes and I think we should use that money and other mechanisms to provide health care to all people.

Rand Paul on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 15, 2017)
Insure as many as people, but without mandates

PAUL: I believe that it's incredibly important that we do replacement on the same day as we do repeal. The replacement bill that we put together, our goal is to give access to the most amount of people at the least amount of cost. And I think this is where ObamaCare failed. They wanted to insure people. Their motives were good. But they put so many mandates in it, that they made it too expensive. The other problem with ObamaCare is, they have put these mandates and said that every insurance policy has to have 10 items, things like pregnancy and dental coverage and all these things, which are great, but they add cost. And that forced people out of the market. So, one of the key reforms that we will do is, we're going to legalize the sale of inexpensive insurance. That means getting rid of the ObamaCare mandates on what you can buy.

Bernie Sanders on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 15, 2017)
ObamaCare alternatives need patient protections

SANDERS: Nobody thinks that ObamaCare is perfect. It has its problems. But every American has got to recognize, we are the only major country on Earth not to guarantee health care to all people. We pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs because the pharmacy, the pharmaceutical industry is out of control ripping us off. So, what sensible people have got to do is not simply repeal the Affordable Care Act without any alternative, but you've got to sit down and say it's OK, what are the problems. How do we address it? How You just don't throw 20 million people off of health insurance. You don't privatize Medicare.

Q: But if that repeal happens, will you support piecemeal, step by step reforms?

SANDERS: Do we make sure that young people stay on their parents' health insurance? Do we make sure that there are no caps if you're dealing with cancer? It goes without saying that those patient protections have got to stay in place.

Bernie Sanders on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 15, 2017)
ObamaCare insured 20 million, but didn't go far enough

I voted for the Affordable Care Act because, while it did not go anywhere near as far as I wanted, it did provide health insurance for about 20 million more Americans, ended the abomination of people being denied insurance coverage because of preexisting conditions, expanded primary health care, and significantly improved health care coverage for women.

Cory Booker on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 8, 2017)
Repealing ObamaCare with no replacement just hurts Americans

BOOKER: The effort to repeal ObamaCare right now without a plan to replace it, this shouldn't be about politics. This is about real people in America who will be hurt immediately. The American Medical Association, which was against ObamaCare, says, "Don't repeal this without having a replacement plan." You have doctors' associations, nurses' associations, hospital associations all screaming, even some Republicans, "You're going to repeal this law & plunge many Americans into health crisis?" This is akin to shoving someone off a cliff and as they're falling down saying, "Don't worry. We're going to figure this out before you get to the bottom." And so my plan is very simple: Put up your plan. Show the American people. Donald Trump says, "we're going to have health care and it's going to be terrific". Well, show me what that is.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 19, 2016)
ObamaCare collapses under its own weight if we don't repeal

Bill Weld on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 10, 2016)
Tweak ObamaCare with more free market and more choices

Donald Trump: ObamaCare is a disaster. You know it, we all know it. It is going up at numbers that nobody has ever seen worldwide. Nobody has ever seen numbers like this for health care. It is only getting worse. In 2017, it implodes by itself. ObamaCare has pushed the uninsured rate to an all-time low of just over 9 percent while extending coverage to some 20 million people (including Medicaid expansion, exchanges and young adults on family plans). The uninsured rate would be lower still had the 19 holdout states expanded Medicaid.

Bill Weld: I would tweak ObamaCare to make it work better--more market mechanisms, greater role for doctors and patients, narrow the individual mandate.

Hillary Clinton on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 9, 2016)
ObamaCare benefits the insured as well as the uninsured

1. Insurance companies can't deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
2. No lifetime limits, which is a big deal if you have serious health problems.
3. Women can't be charged more than men for our health insurance, which is the way it used to be before the Affordable Care Act.
4. If you're under 26, and your parents have a policy, you can be on that policy until the age of 26.

Hillary Clinton on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 9, 2016)
I'll fix ObamaCare; they'll repeal it

CLINTON: Donald says he's going to solve it by repealing it and getting rid of the Affordable Care Act. And I'm going to fix it, because I agree that premiums have gotten too high. Copays, deductibles, prescription drug costs--I've laid out a series of actions that we can take to try to get those costs down. I want very much to save what works and is good about the Affordable Care Act, but we've got to get costs down. Right now, we are at 90 percent health insurance coverage. That's the highest we've ever been in our country. I want us to get to 100 percent, but get costs down and keep quality up.

TRUMP: ObamaCare is a disaster. You know it. We all know it. It's going up at numbers that nobody's ever seen for health care. It's only getting worse. In '17, it implodes by itself. Their method of fixing it is to go back and ask Congress for more money, more and more money. ObamaCare will never work.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 9, 2016)
ObamaCare will never work; repeal it and replace it

We have to get rid of the lines around the state, artificial lines, where we stop insurance companies from coming in and competing, because that gives the insurance companies essentially monopolies. We want competition.

You will have the finest health care plan there is. She wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster, somewhat similar to Canada. And if you haven't noticed the Canadians, when they need a big operation, when something happens, they come into the United States in many cases because their system is so slow. It's catastrophic in certain ways.

Mike Pence on ObamaCare: (Foreign Policy Oct 4, 2016)
America's place in the world is weakened

KAINE: Governor Pence doesn't think the world's going so well and he is going to say it's everybody's fault.

PENCE: Do you?

KAINE: Let me tell you this. When Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, Governor Pence, did you know that Osama bin Laden was alive?

PENCE: Yes. [But] at a time of great challenge in the life of this nation, where we've weakened America's place in the world and stifled America's economy.

KAINE: Do you know that we had 175,000 troops deployed in the battlefield in Iraq and Afghanistan? Do you know that Iran was racing toward a nuclear weapon and Russia was expanding its stockpile?

Mike Pence on ObamaCare: (Tax Reform Oct 4, 2016)
Lower taxes across the board, and we'll get growth

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Sep 9, 2016)
ObamaCare is government control over our everyday lives

Hillary Clinton wants to have completely government-run health care, which would be a disaster for the liberties and freedoms of all America. That's what she wants. That's what she's aiming at. That's what Obama wanted. He didn't quite get there, but he got this, and you see how bad this has been.

Hillary Clinton on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 9, 2016)
OpEd: Settling for ObamaCare abandons single-payer

Yet, for all the (often dubious) attacks that Clinton loyalists made against Sanders' proposal, they have placed the existing law under virtually no scrutiny. In fact, Clinton and her supporters have issued bold claims that the ACA renders more reform--and even critical discussion--pointless. "We finally have a path to universal health care," Clinton said. "And I don't want us to start over with a contentious debate."

But can the ACA [achieve what it promises]? The unfortunate reality is that Clinton is wrong. The law does not lead to universal health care; it fails to slow costs enough to make it sustainable; and millions of Americans who do have health insurance are nevertheless left underinsured & exposed to financial ruin.

John Hickenlooper on ObamaCare: (Health Care May 24, 2016)
2012: Make healthcare both affordable and accessible

Steve Bullock on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 21, 2016)
Worked with legislature to expand Medicaid

OnTheIssues Note: "Medicaid expansion" is a major aspect of ObamaCare implementation at the state level. As of 2016, sixteen states rejected Medicaid expansion; of those, 15 have Republican governors.

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Government Reform Mar 15, 2016)
Authored 70 Supreme Court briefs & argued 9 cases

Stood for Americans' First Amendment rights against Democrats who sought to repeal our free speech rights.
• Defended Hobby Lobby against Obamacare's contraception mandate.
• Fought and won a landmark victory at the Supreme Court in Medellin v. Texas; protected US sovereignty against 90 foreign nations and the president to ensure the US is not subject to rulings of the "World Court."
• Led the way to preserve the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.
• Successfully defended the constitutionality of the Texas Ten Commandments monument, winning a 5-4 landmark decision.
• Successfully defended the Texas schools' moment of silence law in federal district court.
• Galvanized national support for Houston pastors who had been subpoenaed by the City of Houston and forced to turn in their sermons.

John Kasich on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 25, 2016)
Give financial incentive for low cost & good outcomes

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 25, 2016)
Keep pre-existing condition coverage; not individual mandate

RUBIO: The individual mandate. He said he likes the individual mandate portion of it; I don't believe that should remain there. We need to repeal ObamaCare completely and replace it with a system that puts Americans in charge of their health care money again.

TRUMP: I agree with that 100%, except pre-existing conditions, I would absolutely get rid of ObamaCare. I want to keep pre- existing conditions. It's a modern age, and I think we have to have it.

Q: The insurance companies say is that the only way that they can cover people with pre-existing conditions is to have a mandate requiring everybody purchase health insurance. Are they wrong?

TRUMP: I think they're wrong 100%. Look, the insurance companies take care of the politicians [and vice-versa]. The insurance companies are making an absolute fortune. Yes, they will keep preexisting conditions, and that would be a great thing.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 25, 2016)
Removing cross-state barriers solves many insurance issues

RUBIO: Here's what you didn't hear in that answer. What is your plan? I understand the lines around the state, whatever that means. This is not a game where you draw maps. What is your plan, Mr. Trump?

TRUMP: You get rid of the lines, it brings in competition. So, instead of having one insurance company taking care of New York, or Texas, you'll have many. They'll compete, and it'll be a beautiful thing.

RUBIO: So, that's the only part of the plan? Just the lines?

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 25, 2016)
Chief Justice Roberts: a disaster who gave us ObamaCare

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 18, 2016)
Taking care of poor sick people isn't single-payer

TRUMP: Well, I like the mandate. I don't want people dying on the streets. The Republican people, they don't want people dying on the streets, but sometimes they'll say "Donald Trump wants single payer."

Q: Will people with pre-existing conditions be able to get insurance?

TRUMP: Yes. Now, the new plan is good. It's going to be inexpensive. It's going to be much better for the people at the bottom, people that don't have any money. We're going to take care of them through maybe concepts of Medicare. Now, some people would say, "that's not a very Republican thing to say." That's not single payer, by the way. That's called heart. We gotta take care of people that can't take care of themselves.

John Kasich on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 13, 2016)
Ohio expanded Medicaid but not for ObamaCare

BUSH: I admire the fact that Governor Kasich is supporting spending more money on drug treatment and mental health. I think that's a high priority, but expanding ObamaCare is what we're talking about, and ObamaCare's expansion, even though the federal government is paying for the great majority of it, is creating further debt on the backs of our children.

KASICH: When Jeb was governor, his first four years as governor, his Medicaid program grew twice as fast as mine. With ObamaCare, I've not only sued the administration, I did not set up an exchange. Jeb knows that I'm not for ObamaCare, never have been.

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Welfare & Poverty Feb 13, 2016)
Regulations like ObamaCare lead to layoffs of the poorest

CRUZ: The people who have been hurt the most in the Obama economy have been the most vulnerable. Big government, massive regulation, don't work. Small businesses are the heart of the economy. My dad fled Cuba in 1957. He was 18. He washed dishes making 50 cents an hour. Today, my dad is a pastor. If we had ObamaCare in place then, the odds are high my father would have been laid off. We need to lift the burdens on small businesses.

Hillary Clinton on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 4, 2016)
Go from 90% coverage under ObamaCare to 100% coverage

CLINTON: Senator Sanders and I share big progressive goals. I've been fighting for universal healthcare for many years, and we're now on the path to achieving it. I don't want us to start over again. I want to build on the progress we've made; got from 90 percent coverage to 100 percent coverage. I don't want to rip away the security that people finally have; 18 million people now have healthcare; pre-existing conditions are no longer a barrier.

SANDERS: Let's deal with the comments that Secretary Clinton made. Every major country has managed to provide healthcare to all people and they are spending significantly less per capita than we are. I do not accept that the US can't do that. I do not accept that the US can't stand up to the rip-offs of the pharmaceutical industry which charge us the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.

Bernie Sanders on ObamaCare: (Principles & Values Jan 30, 2016)
Agrees with Hillary, but more fervently, on many issues

• Abortion: Both would promote reproductive rights, although Hillary would consider opposing viewpoints.
• Gay Rights: Both would promote same-sex marriage; although Hillary was slower to evolve on this issue than many progressives.
• Healthcare: Both would maintain ObamaCare, but Bernie would move towards a single-payer system.
• Gun Control: Hillary is the progressive on this issue (hard-core consistently in favor of gun control, while rural-state Bernie has the more moderate stance and mixed historical voting record.
• Stimulus: both agree on federal spending to end the Great Recession, although Bernie would devote substantially more resources to infrastructure and an increased minimum wage.
• Alternative energy: both would move away from fossil fuels, although Hillary was slow to oppose the Keystone pipeline.

Bernie Sanders on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 25, 2016)
Medicare for All: insure 29M people beyond ObamaCare

SANDERS: I think people will support my Medicare-for-All program because the United States today is the only major country on Earth that doesn't guarantee health care to all people as a right. I think the Affordable Care Act has done a lot of good things. But yet we have 29 million people without any health insurance. There are seniors today who cannot afford the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs because in America, we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Last year, while one out of five Americans cannot afford the prescriptions their doctors write, the three major drug companies made $45 billion in profit because they spent hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions. I believe, as a principle, everybody should be entitled to health care as a right, comprehensive health care.

Hillary Clinton on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 17, 2016)
We worked since Harry Truman to pass healthcare; defend it

CLINTON: I am absolutely committed to universal health care. I certainly respect Sen. Sanders' intentions, but when you're talking about health care, the details really matter. And therefore, we have been raising questions about the nine bills that he introduced over 20 years, as to how they would work and what would be the impact on people's health care? But here's what I believe, the Democratic Party worked since Harry Truman to get the Affordable Care Act passed. We finally have a path to universal health care. We have accomplished so much already. I do not to want see the Republicans repeal it, and I don't want see us start over again with a contentious debate. I want us to defend and build on the Affordable Care Act and improve it.

SANDERS: Her campaign was saying "Sanders wants to end Medicare." That is nonsense. I'm on the committee that wrote the Affordable Care Act.

Bernie Sanders on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 17, 2016)
I helped write ObamaCare; extend it to 29M more uninsured

CLINTON: The Democratic Party worked since Harry Truman to get the Affordable Care Act passed. I don't want see us start over again with a contentious debate. I want us to defend and build on the Affordable Care Act & improve it.

SANDERS: Her campaign was saying "Sanders wants to end Medicare." That is nonsense. I'm on the committee that wrote the Affordable Care Act. What a Medicare-for-all program does is finally provide in this country health care for every man, woman and child as a right. Now, the truth is: FDR and Truman, do you know what they believed in? They believed that health care should be available to all of our people. What we have to deal with is the fact that 29 million people still have no health insurance. My proposal: provide health care to all people, get private insurance out of health insurance, lower the cost of health care for middle class families by $5,000.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Immigration Jan 14, 2016)
We have no borders; and yes, I am angry

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 10, 2015)
Don't exempt Congress from ObamaCare, or any law

FIORINA: Health insurance has always been a cozy, little game between regulators and health insurance companies. We need to try the free market.

TRUMP: The ObamaCare bill--nobody ever read it. They passed it; nobody read it. And look at mess we have right now. And it will be repealed.

CRUZ: The Congressional exemption from ObamaCare, which is fundamentally wrong, and I'll tell you this, if I'm elected president, I will veto any statute that exempts members of congress. The law should apply evenly to every American.

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Principles & Values Oct 28, 2015)
I've been taking on government and my party

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Sep 22, 2015)
Shifted from favoring universal care to opposing ObamaCare

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Sep 16, 2015)
I regret voting for John Roberts because of ObamaCare vote

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Aug 6, 2015)
The insurance companies have total control over politicians

TRUMP: A complete disaster, yes.

Q: Saying it needs to be repealed & replaced.

TRUMP: Correct.

Q: Now, 15 years ago, you called yourself a liberal on health care. You were for a single-payer system, a Canadian-style system. Why were you for that then and why aren't you for it now?

TRUMP: As far as single payer, it works in Canada. It could have worked in a different age. What I'd like to see is a private system without the artificial lines around every state. I have a big company with thousands of employees. And if I'm negotiating in BY or NJ or CA, I have like one bidder. Nobody can bid. You know why? Because the insurance companies are making a fortune because they have control of the politicians. They're making a fortune. Get rid of the artificial lines and you will have yourself great plans. And then we have to take care of the people that can't take care of themselves. And I will do that through a different system.

John Kasich on ObamaCare: (Health Care Aug 2, 2015)
Opposes ObamaCare but not all public programs

A: I'm opposed to ObamaCare and I've been clear on that. In addition to that, instead of locking people up in prison who have mental health [problems], we give them treatment and keep them out and that saves us money. Instead of putting the drug addicted person back in prison and having them be released and back in prison, we treat them and we have a 10% recidivism rate. And for the working poor, instead of us all paying uncompensated care when they go in there and they don't have insurance, they now have health care so they're not sicker and more expensive. Now, we not only save money by doing this, and morally, we're letting people get up on their feet and have a better life. In regard to Medicaid, however, we bring our money back to treat people here in Ohio. I would [prefer to] block grant it, empowering states to deal with those who are sick and poor, so it's not a one-size-fits-all mentality.

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Civil Rights Jul 5, 2015)
Supreme Court gay rights ruling undermines the Constitution

I would urge everyone to read Justice Scalia's dissents. He said that these decisions are an assault on democracy. That this is 5 unelected lawyers declaring they are the rulers of 320 million Americans.

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 30, 2015)
Enumerated powers of Congress don't include ObamaCare

For example, we memorized "TCC NCC PCC PAWN MaMa WReN." Those letters stood for eighteen enumerated powers of Congress in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution: "taxes, credit, commerce, naturalization, coinage, counterfeiting, post office, copyright, courts, piracy, Army, war, Navy, militia, money for militia, Washington, D.C., rules, and necessary and proper." If it's not in that list, Congress has no constitutional authority over it. (As I've often joked, you'll notice there's no "O" for "ObamaCare.")

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 30, 2015)
Personal, portable, & affordable, after repealing ObamaCare

We should expand health savings accounts, so we can save in a tax-advantaged manner for routine healthcare and prevention. And we should make health insurance portable, so it goes with you from job to job, which goes a long way to eliminating the problem of pre-existing conditions. High-risk pools at the state level can solve the rest of that problem.

Personal, portable and affordable. That should be where we go after repealing ObamaCare.

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 30, 2015)
ObamaCare is bad law, but Obama should enforce it, & hasn't

The president did the same thing for members of Congress. Contrary to law, the administration issued a ruling exempting members of Congress (but not ordinary Americans) from the explicit requirements of ObamaCare.

Some people might wonder why an opponent of ObamaCare like me is bothered by the president's failure to enforce a law I dislike. To be sure, I believe ObamaCare is bad, and I'm fighting for Congress to repeal it altogether. But regardless of whether a law is good or bad, a president's unilateral revision of it is illegal--and dangerous to the rule of law.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 28, 2015)
We didn't have a free market before ObamaCare

A: You know, I looked at that. I looked at it very seriously. Some people don't agree with me on this: I want everyone to have coverage. I love the free market, but we never had a free market. Even before ObamaCare, it wasn't really free market. As an example, in New York, when I wanted to bid out my health insurance, we had boundaries. I could only go in New York. If I wanted to bid it out to a company from California or New Jersey, anywhere--you get no bids.

Q: But the single payer, you're not interested anymore?

A: No. No, these are different times. And over the years, you are going to change your attitudes. You're going to learn things and you're going to change. And I have evolved on that issue. I have evolved on numerous issues.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jun 16, 2015)
ObamaCare is a catastrophe that must be repealed & replaced

Speaking at the Iowa Freedom Summit in January, Trump said ObamaCare is a catastrophe that must be repealed and replaced. In 2011, Trump suggested that the health insurance industry have more ability to cross state lines. In "The America We Deserve" Trump wrote that he supported universal healthcare and a system that would mirror Canada's government-run healthcare service.

Bernie Sanders on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 30, 2015)
Voted for ObamaCare; but prefers single-payer system

Sanders voted for the Affordable Care Act, but believes that the new health care law did not go far enough. Instead, he espouses a single-payer system in which the federal and state governments would provide health care to all Americans. Participating states would be required to set up their own single-payer system and a national oversight board would establish an overall budget.

Rand Paul on ObamaCare: (Environment Apr 7, 2015)
Balance environmental safety with business deregulation

Unelected bureaucrats should not have the power to enact regulations that affect the lives of everyday Americans. Whether it's ObamaCare or EPA regulations, cutting red tape and opening the regulatory process to scrutiny is an important step in holding government accountable to all Americans.

In the Senate, I proudly introduced the Regulations from the Executive Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act. This legislation is designed to increase accountability for and transparency in the Federal regulatory process.

As President, I will place common sense and reasonable limitations on a bureaucracy that seeks to target well-intentioned businesses with burdensome regulations.

Rand Paul on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 7, 2015)
Health system was over-regulated before ObamaCare

As a doctor, I have had firsthand experience with the immense problems facing health care. Prior to the implementation of ObamaCare, our health care system was over-regulated and in need of serious market reforms--but ObamaCare is not the answer.

Government interventions in health care have driven up the cost of coverage and decreased competition within the market. More--not less--freedom to choose and innovate will make sure our health care system remains the best in the world.

As your President, I will ensure that real free-market principles are applied to the American health care system so that it is responsive to patients, families, and doctors, rather than government bureaucracy.

John Kasich on ObamaCare: (Welfare & Poverty Mar 7, 2015)
Matthew 25 commands us to aid the less fortunate

For those in need of a New Testament refresher: In Matthew 25, Jesus admonishes his followers to aid the less fortunate. Kasich has cited the passage repeatedly of late in defending his ObamaCare-fueled Medicaid expansion--an act of Republican apostasy that prompted widespread dismay among his party brethren.

He gets back on track: "With this whole spiritual element, let's get away from the judgment side of it. I think it's actually what the Pope's trying to do. The Pope's saying, 'Why don't we get into the feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and helping the imprisoned and helping the lonely? That's what we're commanded to do. To me, this is a gift that I've been able to feel this way."

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 26, 2015)
Washington wants ObamaCare, the people want liberty

As for his GOP rivals also eyeing the White House, Cruz seemed to raise doubts about their credentials and called on the audience to demand that all presidential aspirants demonstrate their conservative bona fides: "Demand action, not talk," Cruz said. "If a candidate tells you that they oppose ObamaCare, fantastic! But when have you stood up and fought against it? If a candidate says they oppose Obama's illegal executive amnesty, terrific. When have you stood up and fought against it?

"Repeal every blasted word of ObamaCare," Cruz concluded.

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Tax Reform Feb 26, 2015)
Abolish the IRS

But it was the question about what Cruz would do as president that drew the most raucous response. "Repeal every blasted word of ObamaCare," Cruz said as he ticked off a list that included "abolish the IRS," "restore America's leadership in the world," get rid of "amnesty" in the immigration system, and reduce the "alphabet soup" of regulations.

John Kasich on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 11, 2015)
Accepted ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion statewide

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 24, 2015)
Support nuns' battle for religious liberty against ObamaCare

"Some might say, this is hard. This is really hard. The media tells us it can't be done. But you know each of us has seen miracles every day," Cruz said.

Cruz noted that a Catholic religious order, the Little Sisters of the Poor, has been battling with the Obama administration over mandates in the Affordable Care Act the sisters say would violate their religious liberties. "Here is a real good rule of thumb: If you are litigating against nuns, as the Obama administration is, you have probably done something wrong," Cruz said.

Rand Paul on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 20, 2015)
Compassion cannot be delivered in the form of coercion

President Obama's fundamental promise that if you like your doctor you can keep them--was a lie. ObamaCare, at its core, takes away a patient's right to choose. Under ObamaCare, patients are prohibited from choosing their doctor or their insurance. Today, more Americans may have medical insurance, but Americans are now paying more money for worse care.

The relationship between doctor and patient is withering. Doctors are fleeing the profession they love. Hospitals are straining, closing, or refusing to accept ObamaCare policies. Everyone knows our health care system needed reforming, but it was the wrong prescription to choose more government instead of more consumer choice and competition. How should we fix our healthcare system? Let's try freedom again. It worked for over 200 years!

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 20, 2015)
ObamaCare didn't crush jobs nor explode deficits

So the verdict is clear. Middle-class economics works. Expanding opportunity works. And these policies will continue to work, as long as politics don't get in the way. We can't slow down businesses or put our economy at risk with government shutdowns or fiscal showdowns. We can't put the security of families at risk by taking away their health insurance, or unraveling the new rules on Wall Street, or refighting past battles on immigration when we've got a system to fix. And if a bill comes to my desk that tries to do any of these things, it will earn my veto.

Hillary Clinton on ObamaCare: (Crime Jan 1, 2015)
Where do Bill and Hillary disagree on social issues?

Deval Patrick on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 30, 2014)
ObamaCare is interconnected with debt and other problems

GOV. DEVAL PATRICK: Well, I respect Senator Schumer, but no, I don't agree with him. I mean, I think Americans understand the interconnectedness of a whole host of solutions that government should pay attention to. Not that they think government should solve every problem in their lives. But that government should help them help themselves. And you ask somebody who is not insured and is sick, or someone who is getting buried by healthcare-related debt, whether healthcare reform makes a difference. And they will tell you that it does make a difference.

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Technology Nov 29, 2014)
Net neutrality is ObamaCare for the Internet

Companies like Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Yelp--through their Washington trade group, the Internet Association--are public backers of net neutrality. They together have praised Obama for endorsing an approach that might subject the Internet to utility-like regulation. All three Republicans, however, rejected the president's suggestion. Rubio hammered it as "government regulation of the Internet" that "threatens to restrict Internet growth and increase costs on Internet users." And Cruz lambasted net neutrality as "ObamaCare for the Internet" in a tweet that went viral--and drew plenty of criticism.

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 23, 2014)
Government shutdown on ObamaCare worked: GOP won in 2014

CRUZ: We've got to demonstrate that the campaign words Republicans used on the trail were more than just talk, that we're willing to honor our commitment.

Q: But you're willing to shut down departments and you're willing to take the backlash? It didn't work very well with ObamaCare.

CRUZ: At the time, you and a lot of folks in the press said what a disaster it was to stand up and fight on ObamaCare. That it was going to cost Republicans the majority. It was going to cost seats. Let me point out, we just had an historic election where we won. We've got the biggest majority in the House since the 1920s. And the number one issue that candidates campaigned on was ObamaCare. Not only did the disaster that a lot of folks predicted not happen, it was the biggest victory we've had in a long time.

Cory Booker on ObamaCare: (Abortion Jul 1, 2014)
Fix Hobby Lobby: it's not about religious freedom

The nation's highest court voted 5-4 on Monday that companies with religious objections can dodge the requirement to pay for insurance coverage for contraception under Obama's Affordable Care Act, saying it violates a federal law protecting religious freedom. The ruling favored art-and-crafts chain Hobby Lobby, among about 50 companies to sue over the ObamaCare requirement.

Booker is running for re-election this year against Republican challenger Jeff Bell, who--like other GOP leaders--praised Monday's ruling.

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care May 20, 2014)
OpEd: Passing ObamaCare with no GOP caused long-term rancor

During the bill's passage, I spoke to one of the president's senior staffers and said that this unilateral act would create an unprecedented level of dissension and rancor that could preclude cordial working relationships for an extended time. The response I got was, "So what? That's nothing new."

This "my way or the highway" approach has resulted in disaster. Influenced by special interest groups, like some of the insurance companies that stood to benefit from the exchanges, and the Trial Lawyers Association, which supports anything that doesn't include tort reform, Democrats tried to create a bandwagon effect.

The Democrats now have an albatross around their necks with ObamaCare and will forever be blamed for destroying a reasonable healthcare system that was working for 85% of the populace.

Elizabeth Warren on ObamaCare: (Welfare & Poverty May 11, 2014)
Nobody should work full-time and still live in poverty

SEN. WARREN: Take a look at the House if you want to see what happens when Republicans take over. What are they on now, is this their fiftieth vote to repeal Obamacare? That's not how you run a country. We have real issues we need to deal with. Minimum wage, student loan debt, equal pay for equal work, a little accountability for the big financial institutions.

Q: Your fans say you're a populist, but your critics say you're just basically a socialist.

WARREN: I just don't know where they get that. You know, look at the issues. Minimum wage? I just believe nobody should work full time and live in poverty. And you know what? Most of America agrees. Student loans, I don't think the U.S. government should be making tens of billions of dollars in profits off the backs of our students, which is what the current student loan system is doing. And I think most Americans agree with me on that.

Rahm Emanuel on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 6, 2014)
I was charged to produce ObamaCare; and it happened

EMANUEL: I was chief of staff. I was charged with trying to produce a health care bill that hadn't been done in 100 years. And I will say, it happened.

Q: When the ObamaCare website wasn't working properly, did you want to be in Washington trying to fix it?

EMANUEL: You gotta be kidding. You get a freebie question for the ridiculousness of that question.

Q: I was asking about your competitive instinct. You say you like to fix things.

EMANUEL: That goes down as one of the more intriguing questions I have ever had. Did I wish I was in Washington to fix a website? Let me answer that. I have a single-word answer. No. Please do not edit out the sarcasm of that answer.

Q: Don't worry, it is staying.

EMANUEL: I don't want it to be missed on your readers.

Stacey Abrams on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 18, 2014)
Let ObamaCare plans cover abortion

OnTheIssues Interpretation: ObamaCare requires that healthcare plans fund abortions; this state law would remove that stipulation from Georgia insurance plans offered under ObamaCare. Voting NO means abortion coverage would be required in healthcare plans.

Legislative Outcome: Passed Senate 37-18-1 on March 18, vote #676; passed House 105-64-7 on March 18, vote #795; Rep. Stacey Abrams voted NO; signed by Gov. Deal April 21

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 9, 2014)
To repeal ObamaCare, show Dems they'd lose by supporting it

CRUZ: If enough Congressional Democrats realize they either stand with ObamaCare and lose, or they listen to the American people and have a chance at staying in office, that's the one scenario we could do it in 2015. If not, we'll do it in 2017.

Q: So you honestly think there's a chance that you can get ObamaCare repealed, every word, as you say?

CRUZ: Every single word.

Q: With Obama in the White House?

CRUZ: You know, what's funny is the media treats that as a bizarre proposition.

Q: Well, it is.

CRUZ: It is the most unpopular law in the country. Millions of people have lost their jobs, have lost their health care, have been forced into part-time work, have their premiums skyrocketing. And right now, Washington isn't listening to those people. That's how we win elections and that's also how we repeal ObamaCare.

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Government Reform Mar 7, 2014)
Presidents should not pick & choose laws to enforce

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Government Reform Mar 7, 2014)
Rein in judicial activism

• Embrace a big pro-jobs, growth agenda
• Pursue all means possible to repeal Obamacare.
• Secure the border and stop illegal amnesty
• Hold government accountable and rein in judicial activism
• Stop the culture of corruption
• Pass fundamental tax reform, making taxes flatter, simpler and fairer
• Audit the Federal Reserve
• Pass a strong balanced budget amendment
• Repeal Common Core
• Deal seriously with the twin threats of ISIL and a nuclear Iran

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 7, 2014)
No regrets for 16-day government shutdown to fight ObamaCare

In a poll taken after the government shutdown Cruz's popularity among the Tea Party's supporters soared to 74 percent favorable from 47 percent in July.

Cruz says he has no regrets over forcing a 16-day government shutdown in 2013 in his effort to defund Obamacare. Later when asked by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace whether the shutdown was "worth it," he replied, "Absolutely!"

Hillary Clinton on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 5, 2014)
Non-employer system better; but don't turn back ObamaCare

Clinton suggested she's open to different ways of achieving the health law's goals. She praised Arkansas for carrying out a new approach to expanding Medicaid coverage, by using the federal money to buy private health insurance for more than 100,000 low-income residents.

But the main goal, Clinton said, should be to keep moving ahead with the law. And in a subtle swipe at the Obama administration, she suggested that the law's supporters haven't done the best job explaining what Americans stand to gain from it. "We have to do a better job than has been done, quite frankly, in explaining the benefits," Clinton said.

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 20, 2014)
FactCheck: 7M new Medicaid includes woodwork & normal churn

Is it true? The Facts: ObamaCare expands Medicaid to individuals with incomes of up to 138% of the poverty level. So far, 25 states have expanded Medicaid. Because of the ACA, the number of Americans on Medicaid will increase by 8 million in 2014.

That figure includes some people who were previously eligible for Medicaid but had never signed up before all the publicity about new health-care options (known as people coming out of the "woodwork"), and also includes people previously enrolled in Medicaid who are deemed eligible for another year (in other words, "normal churn").

[Those two categories add up to as much as 4.8 million people, although states don't report those figures well, so much is left to guesswork. Obama's estimate would mean those two categories are only 1 million people]. No matter how you slice it, it does not add up to 7 million.

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 29, 2014)
FactCheck: Some Medicare premiums went up under ObamaCare

THE FACTS: Some Medicare premiums have gone up, not stayed flat.

As Obama said, insurers can no longer turn people down because of medical problems, and they can't charge higher premiums to women because of their sex. The law also lowered costs for seniors with high prescription drug bills. But Medicare's monthly premium for outpatient care has gone up in recent years.

Although the basic premium remained the same this year at $104.90, it increased by $5 a month in 2013, up from $99.90 in 2012. Obama's health care law also raised Medicare premiums for upper-income beneficiaries, and both the president and Republicans have proposed to expand that.

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 28, 2014)
Obama changed ObamaCare mandate deadline by a blog post

There is no example of lawlessness more egregious than the enforcement--or non-enforcement--of the president's signature policy, the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Obama has repeatedly declared that "it's the law of the land." Yet he has repeatedly violated ObamaCare's statutory text.

The law says that businesses with 50 or more full-time employees will face the employer mandate on Jan. 1, 2014. President Obama changed that, granting a one-year waiver to employers. How did he do so? Not by going to Congress to change the text of the law, but through a blog post by an assistant secretary at Treasury announcing the change.

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 28, 2014)
Obama asked companies to disobey ObamaCare rules for a year

In other words, rather than go to Congress and try to provide relief to the millions who are hurting because of the "train wreck" of ObamaCare (as one Senate Democrat put it), the president instructed private companies to violate the law and said he would in effect give them a get-out-of-jail-free card--for one year, and one year only. Moreover, Obama simultaneously issued a veto threat if Congress passed legislation doing what he was then ordering.

In the more than two centuries of our nation's history, there is simply no precedent for the White House wantonly ignoring federal law and asking private companies to do the same.

Mike Pence on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 26, 2014)
Healthy Indiana: expand Medicaid but with "skin in the game"

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 26, 2014)
5 million had health insurance canceled because of ObamaCare

CRUZ: In terms of whether we should have stood and fought on ObamaCare, I think the proof is in the pudding. Millions of people across the country have seen why we were standing and fighting because ObamaCare is a disaster. Five million Americans all across this country had their health insurance canceled because of ObamaCare. [Obama should] look in the camera say, "I'm sorry. I told you if you like your health insurance plan you can keep it. I told you if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor and that wasn't true." But then, here is the real kicker, if you are really sorry, you actually do something to fix the problem. The pattern we've seen over and over again with this president is he says he's sorry, expresses outrage then doesn't fix the problem, he keeps doing it over and over.

Nikki Haley on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 22, 2014)
Reject ObamaCare state exchange; reject Medicaid expansion

But as a state, and as an elected government, we will not be victims in this process. We rejected the federal government's less than generous offer to run a state exchange, an offer that would have Washington bureaucrats dictating the exchange and South Carolinians paying for it.

And, with your help, we emphatically said no to the central component of ObamaCare, the expansion of a broken Medicaid program that is already cannibalizing our budget, and would completely destroy it in the years to come.

These were not decisions made lightly, without thought or analysis. But I am fully convinced that South Carolina will be better for them, and I pledge to you this: we will continue to fight ObamaCare every step of the way.

Kamala Harris on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 26, 2013)
Companies should provide contraception under ObamaCare

"Under the ACA, all Americans have the right to access affordable, quality healthcare, including contraception. For-profit companies should not be able to deny women access to healthcare based on the religious beliefs of the company's owners. The 10th circuit ruling should be reversed by the US Supreme Court."

The list of ObamaCare exemptions includes one on religion: anyone who is "conscientiously opposed to accepting any insurance benefits," which some say includes Muslim groups. This portion of the law was apparently written specifically for the Amish, but it may play a role in the fight over ObamaCare.

Cory Booker on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 3, 2013)
ObamaCare is a vital step in the right direction

• Health care costs are a factor in over 60 percent of bankruptcies;
• Millions of Americans exhaust their savings every year trying to cover medical expenses;
• Many people without insurance have been unable to get treatment.

In Newark, we know that investing up front can produce great gains in the long run, and that the opposite is equally and sadly true. As Mayor I did not wait for the federal government to improve health access for Newarkers.

Rand Paul on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 3, 2013)
ObamaCare cuts hundreds of choices down to just four

PAUL: Nearly 90% of them are signing up for Medicaid, free health insurance from the government. My concern is not that we shouldn't help people. I do want to help these people to get insurance. But there is going to be a cost. So I see the positive, but I also see the negative. And the real problem is we're driving everyone out of the individual market. Where there were once hundreds of plans that you could choose from, there's now four government-mandated plans. If your insurance is not as good as them, or even if it's too good, you can't buy it.

Q: If the web site problems are fixed, will ObamaCare work?

PAUL: You know, I think government is inherently inept, because they don't work on a profit motive. Government has to do certain things. But government shouldn't take on new things to do when it's not managing what it has now.

John Kasich on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 28, 2013)
Expand Medicaid to 275,000 poor Ohioans, but not ObamaCare

In his three years as governor, he has expanded programs for the mentally ill, fought the nursing home lobby to bring down Medicaid costs

Yet, at the same time Ohio under Mr. Kasich refused to run its own state insurance exchange as encouraged by the health care law, known as the Affordable Care Act. The governor said he did not believe that the law, which mandates that people buy insurance, will work. To the contrary, he said, "It's going to throw people out of work and not control costs."

Bill de Blasio on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 22, 2013)
Enroll 600,000 more New Yorkers in ObamaCare by 2018

However, since 67% of those uninsured are projected to be eligible for but not enrolled in ACA programs, a full-scale campaign mobilizing all city agencies and supporting community-based organizations to do outreach will not only increase coverage for New Yorkers, but increase federal dollars flowing to the city that can help free up resources for other health care initiatives for the remaining uninsured. The city's health department has created a detailed outline of ways to create a comprehensive "navigator" program that will supplement state efforts to enroll the uninsured.

Bill de Blasio will commit every financial and human resource needed--which will be repaid through the new federal dollars flowing to the city-- to enroll 600,000 more New Yorkers in ACA-covered health insurance programs by 2018.

Rand Paul on ObamaCare: (Budget & Economy Oct 13, 2013)
The sequester is the law of the land: can't compromise on it

PAUL: I'm willing to compromise. But we're borrowing more than a million dollars every minute. So, we do have to address that. I think the one thing I cannot accept is the Democrats want to exceed the sequester caps, these things that we put into law to restrain spending already. And it's funny, they're all about ObamaCare being the law of the land, but so is the sequester. The sequester is the law of the land, and if we exceed that, it's a real big step in the wrong direction.

Q: The sequester means forced budget cuts that unless there is some agreement on Capitol Hill about spending, they go into place.

PAUL: Yes, and to clarify what the sequester cuts are, they're a cut in the rate of increase of spending, because over ten years, even with the sequester, government will grow. It goes down for a year or two, but over 10 years, it grows.

Rand Paul on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 6, 2013)
It's Congress' job to fight to change ObamaCare

PAUL: Well, because it's Congress's job to oversee spending. The power of the purse resides with Congress and they fund programs every year. So it's not their obligation once something is law to never change it. So it's a silly argument for Democrats to say, "Oh, the law has been passed. We can't ever change it." Well that's what Congress's job is.

Q: You talk about compromise a lot with regard to ObamaCare. What part of ObamaCare do you like and want to keep?

PAUL: I don't really like any of ObamaCare. But I realize I'm not going to get my way. But we do control a third of the government. People did elect us to fight. I'm supposed to go and fight to make bills either less bad or make them better if possible. So I think it is my job to stand up and provide oversight for legislation. It's precisely what Congress is supposed to be doing. This is Congress's job.

Cory Booker on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 5, 2013)
ObamaCare needs to be improved, but is helping people now

Eric Swalwell on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 6, 2012)
Work on preventative health care within ObamaCare

Beto O`Rourke on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 6, 2012)
ObamaCare addresses some problems, but needs El Paso focus

While these are important issues to address, the act fails to address problems that are specific to El Paso and the border. As your congressman I will work to make sure that future legislation that carries out the provisions of the PPACA will help, and not hurt, El Paso.

John Delaney on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 6, 2012)
ObamaCare ensures access to affordable quality health care

However, one of the problems with the ACA is that it does not do enough to address the long-term costs of the health care system. It is a testament to our health care development that Americans are living longer than ever, but the costs associated with healthcare necessarily increase. I will fight attempts to repeal this landmark legislation, but I believe it is necessary to refine the ACA to create a framework that will lower long-term costs.

Ron DeSantis on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 6, 2012)
Repeal ObamaCare to protect Medicare

If I'm elected to Congress, I will take on leaders of both parties, fight the prevailing culture of Washington and work to restore limited government principles by, among other things:
• Repealing ObamaCare to protect Medicare, reduce spending and lift burdens on small business
• Capping pay and benefits of Washington DC bureaucrats at private sector equivalent
• Balancing the budget by reducing spending, devolving power to the states, and eliminating bureaucracies

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Abortion Oct 16, 2012)
ObamaCare asks insurance companies to provide contraceptives

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Abortion Oct 11, 2012)
No church needs to provide contraception under ObamaCare

BIDEN: No religious institution, Catholic or otherwise, including any hospital--none has to refer contraception. None has to pay for contraception. None has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact.

RYAN: If they agree with you, then why would they keep suing you? It's a distinction without a difference.

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 3, 2012)
Boards of experts identify best practices & keep costs down

OBAMA: When Governor Romney talks about this "unelected" board that we've created, is a group of health care experts, doctors etc., to figure out, how can we reduce the cost of care in the system overall? So what this board does is basically identifies best practices and says, let's use the purchasing power of Medicare and Medicaid to help to institutionalize all these good things that we do.

ROMNEY: In order to bring the cost of health care down, we don't need to have a board of 15 people telling us what kinds of treatments we should have. We instead need an incentive: performance pay, for doing an excellent job, for keeping costs down,

OBAMA: This board that we're talking about can't make decisions about what treatments are given. That's explicitly prohibited in the law.

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 3, 2012)
ObamaCare says insurance companies can't jerk you around

ROMNEY: I sure do. It's expensive. It has killed jobs.

OBAMA: Well, four years ago, it wasn't just that small businesses were seeing costs skyrocket, but it was families who were worried about going bankrupt if they got sick. If they had a pre-existing condition, they might not be able to get coverage at all. If they did have coverage, insurance companies might impose an arbitrary limit. And let me tell you exactly what ObamaCare did. Number one, if you've got health insurance, it doesn't mean a government takeover. You keep your own insurance. You keep your own doctor. But it does say insurance companies can't jerk you around. They can't impose arbitrary lifetime limits. They have to let you keep your kid on your insurance plan until you're 26 years old. And it also says that you're going to have to get rebates if insurance companies are spending more on administrative costs and profits than they are on actual care.

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 3, 2012)
ObamaCare and RomneyCare both expand private insurance

ROMNEY: The right answer is not to have the federal government take over health care and start mandating to the providers across America, telling a patient and a doctor what kind of treatment they can have. That's the wrong way to go.

OBAMA: There's a reason why Governor Romney set up the plan that he did in Massachusetts. It wasn't a government takeover of health care. It was the largest expansion of private insurance. But what it does say is that "insurers, you've got to take everybody."

ROMNEY: The federal government taking over health care for the entire nation and whisking aside the 10th Amendment, which gives states the rights for these kinds of things, is not the course for America to have a stronger, more vibrant economy.

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 2, 2012)
Vow to repeal ObamaCare

But even through this chaotic back-and-forth, the two candidates owned their distinctively different political views. Cruz again cemented his vow to repeal President Obama's Affordable Care Act, while Sadler said Congress can't afford to take away the benefits the reform has offered to young adults and the elderly.

Rand Paul on ObamaCare: (Health Care Aug 29, 2012)
ObamaCare is still unconstitutional, despite Supreme Court

The leftwing blogs were merciless. Even my wife said--can't you pleeeease count to ten before you speak? So, I've had time now to count to ten and, you know what? I still think it's unconstitutional!

Do you think Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas have changed their minds? I think if James Madison himself--the father of the Constitution--were here today he would agree with me: The whole damn thing is still unconstitutional!

This debate is not new and it's not over. Hamilton and Madison fought from the beginning about how government would be limited by the enumerated powers. Madison was unequivocal. The powers of the federal government are few and defined. The power to tax and spend is restricted by the enumerated powers.

So, how do we fix this travesty of justice? There's only one option left. We have to have a new president!

Elizabeth Warren on ObamaCare: (Health Care Aug 1, 2012)
ObamaCare provides free preventive care for women

As of today, August 1st, whenever insurance plans come up for their annual renewal, the companies will be required to cover key preventive services for women free of charge. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 47 million women nationwide, including over 1.2 million Massachusetts women, are in health plans that must cover these new preventive services without charging a co-pay, co-insurance, or deductible.

Joe Walsh on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 4, 2012)
Opted out of Congress' health insurance plan

Walsh presented himself as a Tea Party candidate and ran hard against the Affordable Care Act [ObamaCare]. He received little money from the national Republican campaign, a fact that may have inspired his post-election comment critical of Republicans and Washington politicians. Republicans, he said, provided "welfare for the rich and corporations at the expense of small business." While many politicians are addicted to power and perks "and want to be something, not do something." In refusing to accept government-run healthcare, Walsh called it too generous. Walsh's principles refusal of congressional health care, along with his embrace of down-the-line conservative positions, endeared him to Tea Party supporters.

Nikki Haley on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 3, 2012)
ObamaCare is wrongheaded and unconstitutional

I have been consistent as a candidate and as governor in my position to Obamacare. The president's approach is wrongheaded and unconstitutional. He's pouring more costs into the system through federal mandates instead of taking costs out of the system through transparency and individual responsibility.

But there is one bright side to the president's plan: It has sparked a conversation about health care that is badly needed. Our healthcare problem is real. In South Carolina we have a large Medicaid population, and health care is the main driver of our budget deficit. But our health-care problem is also unique to our state--it's not the same as the health-care challenges in states like MA or NE. Our challenges are mainly poverty and education.

Nikki Haley on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 3, 2012)
ObamaCare opt-out rules disallow state opt-out

We have good services, but we need to educate people on how to better utilize them and on how to pay more attention to their health.

I told Obama that his health-care plan imposed mandates that South Carolina just couldn't afford. Our annual budget is $5 billion, and we had calculated that his plan would cost us $5 billion over the next 10 years. We expected to see 30% to 40% of our private companies drop their employees' coverage and force their workers into the public system. My question had 2 parts, I told the president. Would he repeal Obamacare? And if not, would he allow South Carolina to opt out of the system?

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 3, 2012)
Throw my body in front of a train to stop ObamaCare

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 3, 2012)
OpEd: ObamaCare passed by constitutionally suspect tactics

People in South Carolina were outraged by what they were seeing in Washington. As far as I was concerned, the health-care law was a part of the same DC mentality that had given us the bailouts: Don't fix the problem, just throw it back on the taxpayers and have them pay for it.

Nikki Haley on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 3, 2012)
Dead set against ObamaCare: We can't split the cow

I had pledged, as governor, to lead a coalition of governors to fight Obamacare and allow the states to offer real solutions to our health-care crisis. I was dead set against Obamacare, but Sheheen wanted to have it both ways. Pressed on the issue in the debate, he claimed to support some parts of the Obama plan but not others. There were "good and bad" parts of the bill, he insisted.

"Senator, you can't split the cow," I replied. "You can't say you like certain parts of it and not other parts. We're stuck with the whole cow."

Sheheen's answer was petty and insulting, even for him. "We need a governor with the intelligence and the ability to say when things are good and things are bad," he said. He was calling me unintelligent! The crowd got it and booed the cheap shot.

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jan 24, 2012)
FactCheck: ObamaCare covers only 1/2 of 30 million uninsured

THE FACTS: That's only half true. About half of the more than 30 million uninsured Americans expected to gain coverage through the health care law will be enrolled in a government program. Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income people, will be expanded starting in 2014 to cover childless adults living near the poverty line.

The other half will be enrolled in private health plans through new state-based insurance markets. But many of them will be receiving federal subsidies to make their premiums more affordable. And that's a government program, too.

Starting in 2014 most Americans will be required to carry health coverage, either through an employer, by buying their own plan, or through a government program.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Dec 5, 2011)
Kill ObamaCare before it becomes a trillion-ton weight

Obamacare is a heat-seeking missile that will destroy jobs & small businesses; it will explode health-care costs; and it will lead to health care that is far less innovative than it is today. Every argument that you'd make against socialism you can make against socialized health care, and any candidate who isn't 100% committed to scrapping Obamacare is not someone America should elect president. Repealing Obamacare may be one of the most important and consequential actions our next president takes.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Health Care Dec 5, 2011)
Increase insurance competition across state lines

One way to infuse more competition into the market is to let citizens purchase health-care plans across state lines.

This could be easily accomplished if Congress got some guts and did the right thing. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress control over interstate commerce. But for whatever reason, the Congress has never exercised this power regarding health insurance. They need to.

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 11, 2011)
OpEd: True cost of ObamaCare was end of bipartisanship

By the time the true cost of his health-care reform bill had already become clear, it had triggered the official, ugly end to his campaign vision of accord and bipartisanship. The same president who insisted during his speech on election night that the country "resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long," now found himself at the center of a political climate that he described with the same word. "It's poisonous," he said.

All his talk of bipartisanship had yielded few results, with not one Republican voting for his budget or his stimulus package, and only one Republican voting for his health-care bill.

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 11, 2011)
They called ObamaCare "Armageddon", but no asteroids fell

Elizabeth Warren on ObamaCare: (Abortion Aug 22, 2011)
Staunch Pro-Abortion stance

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jul 18, 2011)
OpEd: No authority to micromanage citizens' healthcare

Ted Cruz on ObamaCare: (Health Care Jul 17, 2011)
Defeat ObamaCare; rein in the federal government

• Pioneered a leading proposal to defeat ObamaCare, restore state authority, and fight federal overreach through interstate compacts
• Met with state legislators and activists from across the nation to help map out a comprehensive strategy to rein in the federal government
• Sued the federal government, on behalf of Texas and 4 other States, to strike down portions of the Medicare Prescription Drug program as an unconstitutional intrusion in the sovereign authority of the States.

Joe Biden on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 24, 2011)
ObamaCare built on the best of our private insurance system

Rand Paul on ObamaCare: (Health Care Feb 11, 2011)
Restrain ObamaCare from using Commerce Clause

They scoffed at us when we said it wasn't constitutional. This Supreme Court case that will be more, about much more than health care. It's going to be about whether or not we believe that our government should be restrained by the Constitution. I think for 60 or 70 years we've been gradually going down this road of becoming more of a majoritarian rule, a democracy. Jefferson said democracy would be nothing more than a mob rule. Our Founding Fathers knew the difference between a republic and a democracy.

Our understanding of the Commerce Clause has become so broad that I often will say, if my shoes were made in Tennessee, they'll regulate my walking in Kentucky.

Donald Trump on ObamaCare: (Abortion Feb 10, 2011)
I am pro-life; fight ObamaCare abortion funding

In his CPAC speech, Trump sounded many themes popular with Republican conservatives. "I am pro-life," he said. "I am against gun control."

And in one of his biggest applause lines, Trump vowed to end the nation's health care law: "I will fight to end Obamacare and replace it with something that makes sense for

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Nov 15, 2010)
OpEd: Obama's public responsibility for health is socialism

Obamacare mandates that the American people must go out and buy government-approved health insurance in the private market. I defy anyone to show me the clause in the Constitution that gives Washington the authority to do this.

Rand Paul on ObamaCare: (Health Care Oct 3, 2010)
Obamacare will cost $3T & health insurance still goes up 15%

PAUL: It's incredibly foolhardy to have a trillion-dollar stimulus and then another trillion dollars into Obamacare. The thing about government also is they notoriously underestimate the cost of things. What the Democrats tell us will be a trillion- dollar health care could turn into a $3 trillion nightmare, a drag on the economy. It's already causing unemployment in Kentucky. My health insurance went up 15 percent since Obamacare was passed. What is going to happen is it's going to hurt the economy and hurt jobs in Kentucky.

Rand Paul on ObamaCare: (Immigration Oct 3, 2010)
Obamacare treats illegal aliens because it's illegal to ask

PAUL: We had 45 million people nationwide that were not receiving or didn't have health insurance. A third of them were in the country illegally and were illegal aliens. And I don't think we should be giving illegal aliens health insurance.

Q: No, that's not true. Illegal aliens are not covered by "Obamacare."

PAUL: I know, but it's illegal to ask them if they're illegal, so it's sort of a Catch-22. The Republicans kept introducing an amendment to Obamacare to say, "You can ask if they're illegal aliens," and the Democrats kept shooting it down, saying, "No, you can't ask whether they're here legally or illegally."

Rahm Emanuel on ObamaCare: (Health Care May 18, 2010)
Advised delaying ObamaCare while busy avoiding depression

Whether to pursue major health care reform in the first year had been a furious topic of debate going back to the transition. Rahm believed that pushing something too big on health care in 2009 was a mistake.

Joe Biden was on Rahm's side. He said during the transition that the Americans he and Obama had met on the campaign trail would understand if health care reform had to be delayed because the government was busy avoiding a depression. "They'll give you a pass on this one," he told the president. Anyone who knew Congress understood that getting a bipartisan bill would be difficult amid so much economic wreckage.

Bill Nelson on ObamaCare: (Health Care May 17, 2010)
"Gator Aid": $2.5B Medicare funding in ObamaCare

• The Louisiana Purchase: Sen. Landrieu was promised an additional $300 million in Medicaid funding for Louisiana.
• The Cornhusker Kickback: Sen. Ben Nelson secured exemptions for Nebraska's Medicaid payments worth around $100 million.
• The U-Con: Sen. Dodd was promised $100 million for a medical center in CT.
• Gator Aid: Sen. Bill Nelson inserted a grandfather clause that would protect Florida's Medicare Advantage program, a $2.5-$3 billion buyoff.

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 13, 2010)
OpEd: Slices $500B from Medicare; repeals Medicare Advantage

What's wrong with Obamacare?
• It slices $500 billion from Medicare, sharply cutting funding for elderly care.
• It repeals the Medicare Advantage program, which subsidized premiums that gave the elderly coverage beyond what Medicare provides. Now they would have to buy more limited Medigroup coverage at higher cost with no subsidies available.
• It sets up a Medical Review Board to rule on what kind of care is allowed and what is not permitted under Medicare--specifying who can get procedures like hip replacement, bypass surgery, and high-cost cancer chemotherapy. The board's decisions would be based on age, condition, and other personal factors; doctors who refuse to follow their rules would be fined or face cuts in their reimbursement.

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Apr 13, 2010)
OpEd: Obamacare decides when life is worth preserving

Human beings have no standing to ask this question. Only God does. But Obamacare preempts divine authority, and arrogates to men and women the responsibility for deciding when life is worth preserving and when it is not.

To a certain extent, all doctors and all families have always faced this excruciating decision. Now, Obama is demanding that it be decided by a calculation of Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs), in which physicians, with bureaucrats peering over their shoulders and cost accounting peering over theirs, must equate life with money and come up with an answer.

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 24, 2010)
OpEd: ObamaCare was achieved by Cuba 50 years ago

I cannot stop thinking about a world in which more than 1/3 of the population lacks the medical attention and medicines essential to ensuring its health.

Mike Pence on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 21, 2010)
ObamaCare is a government takeover of health care

PENCE: We are going to use every means at our disposal to oppose this government takeover of health care. I think the American people see a headlong rush to confront the very real challenges that we have in health care with more government instead of more freedom. Republicans have been offering solutions from the beginning. Let people purchase health insurance across state lines, pass malpractice reform, cover preexisting conditions. All of that can be done without a massive, trillion-dollar expansion of the federal government and burdening future generations with more deficits and more debt.

Q: But the reality is that you don't have the votes to stop it politically.

PENCE: A minority in Congress plus the American people equals a majority. The American people don't want this government takeover of health care. And I don't know if they have the votes today, but I guarantee you, the American people know they have the votes in America.

Barack Obama on ObamaCare: (Health Care Mar 9, 2010)
OpEd: cut $622B in Medicare despite claiming no cuts

Obama said ObamaCare would not add to the deficit, would bend the cost curve down, and would reduce premiums, while the evidence shows just the opposite. Obama said that under his plan people could keep the insurance they had. Independent groups have shown this claim is simply false. At one point, President Obama was even so brash as to claim his plan would not cut Medicare benefits--even though the White House's own fact sheet said at the time that two-thirds of health-care reform would be paid for by $622 billion in Medicare and Medicaid cuts. The deceptions have badly injured his credibility.