GOP rep: Voters want ‘clean’ ObamaCare repeal

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) says that House Republican leadership’s legislation for repealing and replacing ObamaCare will not satisfy voters.

“So what we’re introducing today is consistent with what we told the voters we were going to do and, frankly, what I think they expect us to do, and that is a clean repeal,” he said Wednesday on Fox News, referencing an alternative repeal plan from conservatives that calls for a straight repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Jordan, a House Freedom Caucus member, added that the strategy presented by GOP House leaders contains many of ObamaCare’s biggest flaws.

{mosads}“When we told voters we were going to repeal ObamaCare, we didn’t say, ‘We’re going to repeal ObamaCare but keep some of the taxes,’ which is in the leadership plan,” he said. “We didn’t say, ‘We’re going to repeal ObamaCare but extend and expand the Medicaid expansion.’ “

“And we didn’t certainly say, ‘We’re going to repeal ObamaCare but also start a new entitlement,’ which is what this legislation does,” he added on “Fox and Friends.”

House Republicans revealed their long-awaited legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare late Monday, with plans to quickly push the measure through committee votes.

The Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees each have scheduled votes on the bills Wednesday, with a full House vote expected within several weeks afterward.

But conservatives object to several parts of Republican leadership’s plan, including a refundable tax credit for helping people buy insurance that they have declared a “new entitlement.”

Jordan and other conservative lawmakers announced Tuesday that they would introduce their own repeal plan amid objections to the other proposal.

The conservatives argue that they should vote on repeal separately from replacement and then debate the best alternative for the controversial healthcare law.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Jordan said Tuesday they will next introduce a clean bill for simply repealing ObamaCare, much like Congress did in 2015.