House Speaker Boehner On CBS News: Resistance to ObamaCare Is Hardly “Futile”

(Official Photo by Heather Reed)

“ObamaCare is bad for America,” Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) told CBS News – so bad, in fact, tha President Obama himself has already signed into law seven House-passed bills that repeal or defund parts of it.

Indeed, when the president complained on Thursday that Republicans voted “for nearly the 40th time to dismantle” ObamaCare, he neglected to mention that  Democrats have supported these and several other proposals repealing or defunding parts of this train wreck – and he has already signed seven of them into law. Resistance to ObamaCare is hardly “futile.”

Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler pointed to these bills in response to similar claims made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Here’s the list:

• H.R. 4: Repealed the small business paperwork (“1099”) mandate.  Signed by President Obama on April 14, 2011. The paperwork mandate was called “one of Washington’s dumbest ideas” – it would have destroyed jobs and “hit start-ups hardest, not to mention farms, charities and churches.” House Republicans kept their Pledge to America and repealed it. H.R. 4 also reduced exchange subsidy overpayments by $25 billion.
• H.R. 1473: Cut $2.2 billion from a “stealth public plan” and froze the IRS budget.  Signed by President Obama on April 15, 2011. H.R. 1473 undermined ObamaCare by cutting $2.2 billion from the “Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan” (CO-OP) program – a “stealth public plan.” It saved $400 million by eliminating “Free Choice Vouchers,” which The Hill warned “could lead young, healthy workers to opt out” of their employer plans, “driving up costs for everybody else.” And it ensured the IRS wouldn’t receive additional funding for new agents to enforce the president’s health care law.
• H.R. 674: Saved taxpayers $13 billion by adjusting eligibility for ObamaCare programs.  Signed by President Obama on November 21, 2011. This bill not only repealed a devastating IRS withholding tax – it saved taxpayers $13 billion by changing how the eligibility for certain programs is calculated under ObamaCare. Without the change, a couple earning as much as much as $64,000 could still qualify for Medicaid.
• H.R. 2055: Made more cuts to CO-OPs, IPAB, IRS.  Signed by President Obama on December 23, 2011.  This bill shaved another $400 million off the CO-OPs; cut another $305 million from the IRS to hamper its ability to enforce the law’s tax hikes and mandates; and rescinded $10 million from the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) of bureaucrats, to which Republican leaders are declining to recommend appointments.
• H.R. 3630: Slashed billions from ObamaCare slush funds.  Signed by President Obama on February 22, 2012. Republicans fought for another $11.6 billion in savings, saving taxpayers $5 billion from the Prevention & Public Health slush fund, $2.5 billion from ObamaCare’s “Louisiana Purchase,” and more.
• H.R. 4348: Saved another $670 million from the “Louisiana Purchase.”  Signed by President Obama on July 6, 2012. This saved another $670 million by further adjusting a drafting error that made the “Louisiana Purchase” even costlier.
• H.R. 8: Repealed the unsustainable CLASS program.  Signed by President Obama on January 2, 2013. H.R. 8 saved $6.5 billion by repealing the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, an unsustainable entitlement program whose phony “savings” were used by Democrats to mask the true cost of ObamaCare. The former Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee called CLASS “a Ponzi scheme of the first order, the kind of thing Bernie Madoff would be proud of.” The bill also rescinded all unobligated CO-OP funds – another $2.3 billion savings for taxpayers.

Boehner’s comments were part of an interview that will air tomorrow, July 21, 2013, on CBS News’ Face the Nation. In the interview, he also said, "If Obamacare was workable, why did the president announce that he wasn't going to enforce the employer mandate?”  And, if ObamaCare was workable, why has the president already signed seven bills repealing or defunding parts of it?

Maybe because it’s not so “ wonderful” or “fabulous” after all.

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