Reality Check: Michele Bachmann's Obamacare Ad
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Just so there is no confusion, the federal health care law Republicans call Obamacare has not been repealed.
But judging from emails sent to Pat Kessler, some thought it was, because of Minnesota GOP Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's TV ad.
"Great news," Bachmann said in the ad. "The U.S. House just passed my bill to repeal Obamacare."
In fact, Obamacare was not repealed, and Bachmann doesn't say it was.
The ad started running on the day the House passed a repeal bill she sponsored -- the 37th time the House voted for repeal since the law took effect in 2011.
But you need to know that the Democratic-controlled Senate won't repeal it.
It won't even hear the bill, and President Obama won't sign it, even if he ever gets it.
Bachmann also said in the ad: "Obamacare promised us lower cost and a better health care system. But the truth is just the opposite: unaffordable, skyrocketing insurance costs. And a system so complicated, even Democrats are calling it a train wreck."
No one knows what the truth will be about health care: it doesn't go into effect until next year.
But Bachmann is right about the quote.
Democrats such as Montana Sen. Max Baucus called it a "train wreck."
And that gave conservative groups five seconds of political gold.
"I just got to tell you," Baucus said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on April 17. "I see a huge train wreck coming down."
But that's not the whole story.
Democrats said the "train wreck" is because Republicans are deliberately undermining the new law by starving it of funding.
Killing it off before it gets a chance to grow.
Here are some of the sources used for this Reality Check:
House votes to repeal health care law for the 37th time
Heritage Foundation: ACA as "train wreck"
Controlling Health Care Cost | Another link
