Ryan: GOP health care bill not only good policy, but good politics
House Speaker Paul Ryan declared on Sunday the Republican House health care bill was not only good policy but also good politics, fulfilling the long-standing GOP campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.
“Health care is a complicated and very emotional personal issue. And we completely understand that,” the Wisconsin Republican said on ABC’s “This Week.” “The system is failing. We’re stepping in front of it and rescuing people from a collapsing system. And more importantly, we’re keeping our word.”
“That’s really important here,” he explained. “People expect their elected leaders, if they run and campaign on doing something, they expect them to do that. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re keeping our word.”
Obamacare is “failing,” “collapsing” and “not working,” and the GOP House bill fixes many of the problems by giving more decision-making power to the states, Ryan said.
“This is a rescue operation. And you have to acknowledge, every state is a little different,” Ryan said. “What we’re trying to achieve here, and what this bill does achieve, gives states the ability to meet the needs of their populations, but put the resources in there so that everyone can have affordable health insurance coverage.”
Asked whether he is worried the bill could hurt Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections, Ryan said, “I would argue that we would spell disaster for ourselves, politically, if that’s your question, if we go back on our word.”
“This is us keeping our word,” he added. “But most importantly, it’s us trying to fix a real problem that real people are experiencing in this country.”