FAIRFAX, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning issued the following statement blasting Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) for killing the Senate Republican bid to repeal Obamacare:
“In 2015, 48 Senate Republicans who are still serving today including Shelley Moore Capito and Lisa Murkowski had no problem passing legislation that repealed the guts of Obamacare. Together with the House of Representatives, this legislation was put on former President Barack Obama’s desk, where it was promptly vetoed. That bill included phasing out Medicaid expansion, ending the premium subsidies, cost-sharing subsidies, the individual and employer mandates, reinsurance, risk corridors and risk-adjustment, and the taxes and spending from the health care law.
“All that needed to happen was for the Senate to vote for exactly the same legislation it adopted for in 2015, and prove that it was not nothing more than a show vote. This terrible outcome proves Senators Capito and Murkowski were never sincere in their promise to repeal Obamacare. They were just phonies. If the 2015 bill was good enough for Obama to veto, it should have been good enough for President Donald Trump to sign. Instead Capito and Murkowski, turned out to be faithless Senators who through their failure are putting the GOP Congressional majority at risk.
“2018 should be a big year for Republicans hoping to significantly grow their majority due to the number of Senate Democrats forced to defend themselves in states won by President Trump. If the failure to put together a simple majority to send the same repeal legislation to the House that was passed in 2015, it is very possible that 2018 will become a political killing field for Republicans, with disastrous national consequences in 2019.
“Senate Majority Leader McConnell needs to let the situation cool for now, but before anyone goes home in August, he needs to convince Capito, Murkowski and any other faithless Senators that there is no going back and that the negative advertising writes itself if the Senate fails to keep faith with those who voted them into office.
“It will be interesting to see if groups like American Action Network which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking House Republican Freedom caucus members for their successful efforts to improve the bill to replace Obamacare will show the same vigor in attacking their philosophical compatriots in the Senate who oppose the very bill they voted for in 2015.”
