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Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) has had something of a tumultuous history with the Republicans attempts at repealing and replacing Obamacare, and now that he's gotten his hands on it, it would appear that the new GOP healthcare plan - the full text of which you can read here - is not going to make the relationship with the Libertarian leaning senator any easier.
Upon seeing the bill, Paul took to Twitter to voice his - not at all surprised - displeasure about what the bill does. After seeing the guts of the GOP plan, the Kentucky senator has taken to calling the bill "Obamacare Lite."
The House leadership Obamacare Lite plan has many problems. We should be stopping mandates, taxes and entitlements not keeping them.— Senator Rand Paul (@Senator Rand Paul) 1488902602.0
House Obamacare Lite plan keeps Obamacare taxes for another year— Senator Rand Paul (@Senator Rand Paul) 1488902633.0
It keeps Obamacare subsidies but renames them "refundable credits."— Senator Rand Paul (@Senator Rand Paul) 1488902657.0
Their plan keeps the Obamacare "Cadillac Tax" forever, which is a tax on the best health insurance.— Senator Rand Paul (@Senator Rand Paul) 1488902699.0
It keeps individual mandate but makes you pay the insurance companies instead of the government— Senator Rand Paul (@Senator Rand Paul) 1488902744.0
And it keeps insurance company subsidies forever.— Senator Rand Paul (@Senator Rand Paul) 1488902767.0
The punchline here is that the GOP isn't really getting rid of Obamacare, it's just retooling it a bit and slapping a new sticker on it. Justin Amash sums it all up nicely.
New plan does not repeal/replace; it repackages Obamacare. It's a political plan that signals retreat and will not reduce health care costs.— Justin Amash (@Justin Amash) 1488906017.0
Paul's history of struggle against the GOP's Obamacare Lite bill is a storied one, including him predicting the fact that this bill would be a softer version of Obamacare when they refused to let him see the bill last Thursday. Before that, Paul had walked out of a meeting on how to handle the Obamacare replacement process in frustration when Republicans kept insisting on keeping entitlements.
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