UPDATE: On his radio show Thursday, TheBlaze's Glenn Beck called out McCain for his comments in September in light of his most recent remarks. You can listen to Beck's commentary in our follow-up story.
For the original news story, read below.
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After repeatedly criticizing senators such as Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) over their crusade to defund Obamacare, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called for the "total repeal" of the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday. It's a quick turnaround after the longtime senator, in September, proclaimed that it was "not rational" to think Obamacare could be defunded or repealed.
In this photo provided by CBS News, on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks on CBS' "Face the Nation" in Washington about the partial federal government shutdown. AP
McCain outlined his "solution" during an interview with Greta Van Susteren, which culminated in an admission that the law should be repealed completely.
"The solution is, first of all, to let people keep their insurance if they want to," he said. "Or at least reinstate them."
He continued: "Second of all, let the insurance companies give a menu of whatever they want to provide. Third of all, medical savings account. Fourth of all, medical malpractice reform. Let people go across state lines to, in order to, if they can get a better insurance policy in another state. And remove this whole tax incentive for employers to provide employees health insurance."
"That is repeal," Van Susteren said, pointing out the obvious.
"That's exactly right," McCain replied. "That is total repeal in every other way. Because what Obamacare is, is an experiment in social engineering -- in other words, making healthy people pay more…in order to subsidize the health care for people that are older and unhealthy. That is the ultimate in social engineering."
It doesn't appear that McCain misspoke in calling for the full repeal of the Affordable Care act as the TV producers seemingly placed the caption "Sen. John McCain Calls for Total Repeal of Obamacare" on the screen before he actually did, hinting that it may have been planned.
Watch the segment via Fox News:
[fnvideo content_id=2836553250001]
Now, flashback to September of 2013, when McCain criticized Cruz and other Republicans who were relentlessly trying to defund Obamacare through a series of political maneuvers.
"I can tell you, in the United States Senate, we will not repeal or defund Obamacare. We will not, and to think we can is not rational," he told CNN's Jake Tapper.
McCain has also argued on several occasions that American voters "spoke" on Obamacare when they re-elected President Barack Obama, and that Republicans lost the fight to repeal the law. In the same speech on the Senate floor, McCain said lawmakers should continue trying to "repair Obamacare."
Watch both videos below:
It should also be noted that McCain has called for the repeal of Obamacare in the past.
Featured image via AFP/Getty
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that McCain has called for the repeal of Obamacare in the past while campaigning and during other speaking engagements.
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