Congress

Today’s Republican quote of the day is brought to you by Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, who said his constituents are “freaking out” about losing their health coverage. His constituents – and millions of Americans – have every right to be after Republicans voted to begin the process to repeal the ACA without having a replacement. From Bloomberg:

When Democrats were in the Majority in the 111th Congress and enacted the Affordable Care Act, we did so through a fully open process.

Instead of launching a partisan retaliatory attack against our government’s nonpartisan ethics watchdog, Republicans in Congress ought to be insisting that the President-Elect abide by the highest standards of ethics and take steps to prevent conflicts of interest from casting a dark cloud over his presidency.  

Every American will be affected by this vote. Not just the 20 million people who will lose their insurance immediately, 30 million total lose their insurance. 

Mr. Speaker, I absolutely disagree with the previous speaker. He is wrong. He is wrong on the facts... The Affordable Care Act was on the table longer than any bill since I’ve been in Congress – which was 36 years – to read, to review, to analyze, and to make a decision. 

I think what the Inspector General needs to do is [ask] ‘were the proper policies followed? Do the facts justify the action that was taken?’ Not so much for what happened in the past, but for what ought to be done in the future. 

Last night, Speaker Ryan joined CNN for a town hall. Right off the bat, the Speaker was confronted by one of the millions of Americans who is benefiting from the Affordable Care Act:

The data released today makes it clear that the Affordable Care Act is helping encourage entrepreneurship and making it easier for people to start small businesses and create jobs in our communities.