Rand Paul: House ACA Replacement Is 'Obamacare Light'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Kentucky Senator Rand Paul voiced his displeasure with Republicans in the House of Representatives for keeping their replacement to Obamacare a secret and hidden in a locked room.
During an interview with Dom Giordano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, Paul said he's heard the new proposal is very similar to what already exists.
"The problem is what they've wanted to put forward is Obamacare light. Obamacare light has three versions in it that conservatives object to. We object to a new entitlement program that's a refundable tax credit that gives you, not your money, but somebody else's money. It'll go on forever....They put a tax on your insurance, essentially a Cadillac tax, just like Obamacare. They just rename it. Then, the third thing they do, they keep the individual mandate, but instead of you paying a penalty to the government for not buying insurance, you're going to have to pay a penalty to the insurance company. It's not a cost. It's an actual penalty...It may be bigger than the individual mandate but we can't be for sure because they're not letting us read the bill. They've got it hidden somewhere."
He doesn't trust how his fellow members of the GOP are handling the rollout and expects more opposition from his wing of the party.
"It's coming from House leadership and I think conservatives are being excluded from the loop. I've been in discussions with the House Freedom Caucus, this is 40 of the most conservative members, several of the conservative members of the Senate and we're not happy with the idea that it's take it or leave it, whatever comes out of the House, you either vote for it or you're not a patriot and you like the status quo. We just don't accept that."
Paul suspects that once Republicans leadership is ready to vote on the bill, the process will move too quickly, without the necessary time for public scrutiny.
"It's coming very, very soon and that's why I'm really ratcheting up my opposition is that I want people to know that this is going to be Obamacare light. Conservatives are not going to like this. If it comes next week and, all of a sudden, a bill pops out of nowhere, out of the secret room with the secret bill, if it all of a sudden pops out and then we vote on it, will it have been scored? Will the media and the public have had time to look at it and critique it? I'm not for just springing this thing out."