Rand Paul: Moving forward with clean ObamaCare repeal a ‘victory’

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday called it a “victory” that Republicans are moving forward with a plan to repeal ObamaCare.

“What I’m calling a victory is not the defeat of the plan, what I’m calling a victory is that we will get to vote on a clean repeal,” Paul, a critic of the Senate GOP’s healthcare plan, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“I’ve been advocating that we repeal ObamaCare — all of it — and we’re at least going to get a vote on a partial repeal and that is a victory.”

Paul said the Senate GOP’s previous healthcare bill — which collapsed earlier this week — had about $180 billion to give to insurance companies.

“Insurance companies have gotten rich on ObamaCare. They used to make $6 billion a year in profit. They’re now up to $15 billion a year in profit,” he said.

“We shouldn’t be giving any tax-payer money to insurance companies, so I objected to that, but I’m actually in favor of and will vote to go to the clean repeal that’s being proposed now.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that Republicans would look to move forward with their plan to repeal ObamaCare, even as the plan has already faced opposition by some GOP senators.

“For the information of all senators, at the request of the president and vice president and after consulting with our members, we will have the vote on the motion to proceed to the ObamaCare repeal bill early next week,” McConnell said from the Senate floor on Tuesday night.