Sen. Toomey Calls for Full Obamacare Repeal

Written by Doug Dooling, Jr., Contributing Writer

Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) joined the Starbucks-free set of Morning Joe this morning to double-down on his calls to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).

“This bill can’t be fixed. I think it’s built on completely flawed premises and internal contradictions,” the Senator said.

His appearance comes during a media frenzy when the ACA, which pundits colloquially call “Obamacare,” has been the target of fresh criticism from Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and national Republican leaders. Cruz declared that any vote for the budget of the United States that funds the ACA is akin to voting for “Obamacare.” The junior Senator from Pennsylvania has not been a participant in these recent demands.

“We’re [the GOP] not completely unified, as you know, and that’s a little bit problematic.”

“When you control only one out of the three [branches of government], you don’t get to dictate all of the terms.”

Although Toomey would not criticize Cruz, he believed that Congress could dismantle the ACA piece-by-piece. One of the items that Toomey would like to peel from the act is the medical device tax. On his Senate website, Toomey says that the medical device tax will cost the Pennsylvania economy $100 million per year. Toomey said that it was not “rocket science” to know that the ACA hinders businesses and that it was contrary to the interest of creating jobs.

“Healthcare should be controlled by individuals,” is how the Senator succinctly put it.

He opposes any unilateral action from President Obama to implement the Affordable Care Act. Instead, Toomey provided his own “Serenity Prayer” on how he would defund the president’s healthcare law.

“Systematically repeal the pieces we can, delay the things we can’t repeal and wait for the days we can repeal the rest.”

Earlier in the segment, Chuck Todd hinted that Pat Toomey was a Republican-In-Name-Only (RINO) for not signing a letter to defund Obamacare. However, Scarborough countered that the definition of a RINO is a politician who knows how to win.

Toomey narrowly defeated Joe Sestak (D-Delaware) in 2010 and the retired admiral has already made it clear he intends on facing Tommey again in 2016.

September 23rd, 2013 | Posted in Front Page Stories, Senate, Top Stories | 14 Comments