Cruz still not happy with health bill
Senator is met with protesters at town hall
AUSTIN — Despite nearly a week of behindthe-scenes wrangling and public pressure, the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare still doesn’t meet U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s key objectives.
“I’m trying to bring folks together to unite the conference behind the shared goal: Let’s lower premiums,” Cruz told reporters as he left a town hall meeting in Austin.
But asked if the Senate plan does that yet, Cruz was clear: “not sufficiently.”
Those remarks come just 24 hours after Cruz told an audience outside of Dallas that he’s not certain that repealing and replacing Obamacare will get done. Cruz remains one of the key GOP holdouts preventing passage in the Senate.
At the same time though, Cruz said Thursday that he has not given up on getting a bill done.
“I still believe we can get
it done,” Cruz said. “I believe we can get to yes — I don’t know if we will.”
Cruz came to Austin determined to talk about veterans issues, but more than 200 protesters outside had different plans and at least a half-dozen successfully infiltrated the event to confront him on health care.
Gary Marsh, a 67-year-old Austin resident, interrupted Cruz’s presentation to press him on why he’s not fixing the problems with Obamacare instead of trying to repeal it entirely.
Instead of having Marsh and the other protesters dragged out, Cruz let Marsh continue for several minutes before reiterating the failures he sees with Obamacare.
Cruz countered that repealing Obamacare was a central part of why the American people elected Republicans to retake the House and the Senate and the White House and he would continue to push to do just that.
“This law isn’t working,” Cruz said. “People are hurting under it.”
After the town hall meeting, Cruz said he didn’t cut the protesters off because he wanted to hear them out.
“I think it was a good opportunity to have the exchange,” Cruz said.
The exchange came just hours after police in Austin arrested seven protesters outside U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s office, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Cruz has been traveling the state trying to hold town hall meetings focused on reforms he is pressing for the Department of Veterans Affairs. In McKinney on Wednesday and in Austin on Thursday, Cruz said the agency needs to hire a chief information technology officer to improve the agency’s systems and be able to identify problems before they turn into scandals.
In addition, Cruz said ultimately Congress needs to give veterans more chances to see private sector doctors rather than being required to just going to the VA systems. He said while many veterans like the care they get at the VA, others want and deserve choice.
The rallies have been organized by Concerned Veterans For America, a conservative leaning nonprofit advocacy group that has been pushing to allow veterans into private health care options rather than rely on the traditional VA bureaucracy.
Cruz is expected to hold another town hall at noon on Saturday at the Sheraton Brookhollow Hotel in Houston.
Cruz has become one of the most important players in the debate over how to repeal Obamacare. While a contingent of moderate Republicans in the Senate hinted at opposing the Senate plan, Cruz and other conservatives announced they couldn’t support the bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was forced to postpone a vote on the issue until after the Senate returns from their annual Fourth recess.
Since announcing his opposition to the bill, Cruz has met with McConnell and other Senate leaders and Vice President Mike Pence who have tried to get his support for the Senate plan.
Cruz rose to national prominence through his opposition to Obamacare and ran for president in 2016 with a declared mission to repeal “every word” of the law.
On Thursday, Cruz said there could be “catastrophic” consequences for Republicans if they fail to repeal Obamacare. But it could be even worse if they pass only a partial repeal and try to pitch it as something bigger.
“Now I think there is an even worse outcome in failing to do it, which is passing a bill that is entitled Obamacare — that has it in the title — but that doesn’t actually fix the problem,” Cruz said.
Cruz said if Republicans do that and premiums continue to skyrocket, “that’s how you get a Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi or a leader Chuck Schumer.”
Protesters at the rally in front of the Renaissance Austin Hotel admitted they had little chance to get Cruz to back down.
“But sitting at home isn’t going to help,” said Adrienne Balkany a resident of Buda, who stood in nearly 100 degree temperatures during rush hour to hold a sign advocating for a single payer health care system.