Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Huckabee a speaker as party masses in N.H.
“We are going to repeal every single word of Obamacare.”
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaking at a gathering of influential conservatives and potential 2016 GOP presidential candidates
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Republicans considering entering the 2016 White House race battered President Barack Obama’s health-care law and nicked each other Saturday, auditioning before a high-profile gathering of conservatives that some political veterans said marked the campaign’s unofficial start.
A speaking program packed with potential presidential candidates weighed in on the House Republicans’ budget, the party’s struggle with Hispanics, the GOP’s future and the coming midterm elections while taking turns on a conference room stage facing hundreds of conservative activists gathered in New Hampshire’s largest city.
The Republican Party’s near-universal opposition to the president’s health-care law dominated the conversation just days after Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius resigned after leading the rocky rollout of the program often called “Obamacare.”
Texas’ Sen. Ted Cruz declared that one resignation is not enough. “We are going to repeal every single word of Obamacare,” said the firstterm senator and Tea Party favorite.
Another Tea Party favorite, Kentucky’ Sen. Rand Paul, insisted that the GOP broaden its appeal in order to grow. The Republican Party, he said, cannot be a party of “fat cats, rich people and Wall Street.”
Neither Paul nor Cruz defended the sweeping budget plan written by another potential presidential contender, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. The budget, recently approved by the Republican-led House, transforms entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid to help reduce federal spending.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said the Ryan plan was simply “a starting point,” but that “there would be some things I’d probably change,” declining to be more specific.
Another high-profile Republican, real estate mogul Donald Trump, was more critical.
“His whole stance is to knock the hell out of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security,” Trump said of Ryan. “I would leave it alone. I don’t want to hurt people.”
The gathering comes as prospective presidential candidates begin to step up appearances in key states ahead of the 2016 presidential contest, even though New Hampshire’s first- inthe-nation presidential primary isn’t planned for another two years.
“It’s the unofficial kickoff of the 2016 process,” said Republican operative Mike Biundo, who managed Rick Santorum’s last presidential campaign.
As potential presidential candidates jockey for position, the stakes are high for November’s midterm elections, where Republicans are fighting to claim the Senate majority. The president’s health-care law could figure
The gathering comes as prospective presidential candidates begin to step up appearances in key states ahead of the 2016 presidential contest.
prominently in November House and Senate contests across the country.
The industrialist Koch brothers- affiliated Americans for Prosperity, which co-hosted Saturday’s meeting, has already spent millions of dollars on health- care- related attack ads aimed at vulnerable Democratic senators in New Hampshire, North Carolina, Alaska, Colorado, Iowa and elsewhere.
Sebelius resigned Friday, days after the Obama administration announced that enrollment in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act had grown to 7.5 million, a figure that exceeded expectations and gave Democrats a surprise success after a disastrous rollout. It was welcome news for Democrats who’ve been forced to defend their support for the health-care law.
In a conference call, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., insisted that “Democrats are not running away from the Affordable Care Act.”
Democratic National Committee spokesman Mike Czin noted that Republican opposition to the health-care law was the foundation of the GOP’s unsuccessful political strategy in 2012. He said the debate has changed now that the law has been implemented and millions of people are reaping its benefits.
“That’s a debate that we’re going to have, and we’re eager to have,” Czin said.
At the same time, Van Hollen, who is the ranking House Budget Committee member, called for Republicans to defend their support for Ryan’s budget plan, introduced last week, that would repeal the health-care law, transform Medicare, reintroduce the “doughnut hole” for prescription drug costs and enact deep cuts in education.
Trump, who says he’s also considering a Republican presidential bid, echoed many of the Democrats’ concerns: “Leave my Medicare alone,” he declared Saturday.
Campaigning in Iowa the night before, Ryan defended his recently House- passed budget plan as a sign of growing GOP unity.
“Some people wanted to go further, some people thought it went too far. The point is we unified around these common principles in a plan,” the Wisconsin congressman said after headlining an Iowa GOP dinner. “That’s very important to me — which is we can’t just oppose, we have to propose.”
Back in New Hampshire, conservatives also criticized another potential presidential contender who was not in attendance, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who recently suggested that many illegal aliens enter the United States because of love for their families.
Trump described Bush’s suggestion as “out there.”