Congressmen: Republican voters should be angry if Obamacare repeal fails

Darin LaHood
U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood said Republicans have had plenty of time to develop alternatives to Obamacare. (Photo courtesy Facebook/Darin LaHood)

By Illinois Radio Network

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Some Illinois’ Republican congress members say GOP voters should be angry if there’s no Obamacare repeal and replace.

Two of central Illinois’ congressmen, Rodney Davis and Darin LaHood, and southern Illinois’ congressman Mike Bost, all said Republican voters should be angry if Obamacare isn’t repealed or replaced, or at the very least changed by the next election.

LaHood said Republicans in Congress talked a big game for eight years, and during the last election about getting rid of Obamacare on Day 1.

“We have no more excuses as Republicans,” LaHood said. “We have to govern and fix problems as it relates to health care. We’ve done our job in the House. It’s not a perfect bill, but it is a plan that repeals and replaces Obamacare.”

Bost said voters need to direct much of their anger at the Senate.

The U.S. Senate “needs to get to work. They need to come up with something that they can agree upon. And they need to send it back to us,” Bost said. “Then we can pass, and adjust, and work with them.”

Davis said voters should also be angry with Democrats in Washington, D.C., because without a change, Obamacare will simply collapse.

“It’s very frustrating, because the Democrats who talk about trying to fix this Obamacare system that they created are doing nothing to actually help fix it,” Davis said.

LaHood said Republicans are like “the dog who caught the truck,” and they have to figure out what to do with the power they have to move past Obamacare.

Michael F. Cannon, the Cato Institute’s director of Health Policy Studies, has said in the past that both parties need to find an Obamacare replacement together.

“If we want to provide secure, stable access to health care for the sick, we need a system that is more economically and politically sustainable,” Cannon said. “We need a system that both Republicans and Democrats, left and right, will be able to support.”

Davis, Bost, and LaHood all voted for the American Health Care Act in May.

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