Paul Ryan Against Using Shutdown Threat to Repeal Obamacare
Republican congressman Paul Ryan on Sunday showed a resolve to repeal "Obamacare," but stressed that efforts to remove President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare law should not use the threat of a government shutdown.
Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that the GOP should make efforts to get rid of Obamacare, but not by blocking government funding bills that includes money for the program. A shutdown, he explained, would affect only budgets for government agencies, and not entitlement programs.
"Look – we all, Republicans, want to repeal and replace Obamacare," Ryan, a former vice presidential candidate, said. "With the government shutdown, so to speak, we're talking about discretionary spending, government agency budgets, but it doesn't affect entitlements. Obamacare is an entitlement, you know, like Medicare and Social Security is. And so, the entitlement continues on, even under a government shutdown scenario. So it's just not that simple and easy."
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The Wisconsin congressman went on to say that rather than "sort of swinging for the fences and trying to take this entire law out with discretionary spending, I think there are more effective ways of achieving that goal." Republicans "we can do better by delaying this law. We've already had votes to delay other parts of it," said Ryan, a possible Republican presidential candidate for 2016. "Democrats have supported us in that."
The Obamacare is scheduled for implementation in October, and some Republicans, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, want the party to use the shutdown threat to kill it.
Ryan also differs with some of his colleagues in the party who believe a lack of effort towards immigration reform could harm the GOP politically. "I disagree that we should approach this issue based on what's right for us politically. We should approach this issue on what we think is the right thing to do, the right policy," he said.
"...Right now, people come to this country based on family relations, not based on skills," Ryan added. "Most other countries have a legal immigration system that's good for their economy – we should do the same. And when it comes to the undocumented, the people who came here illegally, we want to give people a chance to get right with the law while respect the rule of law and that means not doing an amnesty."
