Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) on Tuesday claimed that with the passage of Obamacare, the American people consider the heath care debate now over, and as such Washington such focus on repairing the sluggish economy.

“I have a contrarian view, the American people know the health care debate is over, that we’ve got to make this work,” he said on MSNBC. “The real issue is going to be the economy. The average wages of working Americans declined in the past ten years, how do we restore growth in the pocket books not just in the stock market for the American people?”

“We’ve got to lean in on that and start addressing the concerns of parents trying to send their kids to college, get them jobs,” he added. “Retirement security, these are things that have been put on the side and it’s really a discredit that Congress isn’t focusing on middle class concerns.”

Contrary to Welch, many Republicans feel that the Affordable Care Act was never really litigated throughout the 2012 campaign.

“We haven’t had a big debate about Obamacare really since it passed in Congress,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said in October, as the GOP mounted a fight to shutdown the government over the law. “And so I think it was helpful to have the debate.”