The Real GOP Agenda Trickles Out: Repeal Health Care, Raise Taxes

March 7, 2022
Blog Post

From the Speaker's Press Office:

Despite GOP Leaders' orders to keep quiet about their plans, the truth of the Republican agenda just keeps leaking out.

Days after top Senate GOPer Rick Scott doubled down on the GOP plan to raise taxes on "over half of Americans," Senator Ron Johnson announced Republicans will revive their obsession with repealing the Affordable Care Act and ripping away health coverage for more than 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.

The latest salvo in Republicans' war on protections for pre-existing conditions comes amidst record-breaking ACA enrollment during the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed millions of Americans to secure quality, affordable health insurance. Under President Biden's American Rescue Plan, Democrats further lowered premiums, saving families saved an average of $2,400. Yet, Republicans are dead set on rolling back that hard-won progress.

No wonder GOP Leaders don't want to talk about their agenda for working families: no health care, higher taxes.

Read key points from the Washington Post on the GOP's ongoing plans to repeal the ACA here:

Washington Post: Sen. Ron Johnson says Obamacare should be repealed if GOP wins power back

  • Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he wants to see the GOP repeal the Affordable Care Act if his party wins the White House and the House and Senate majorities again in 2024, a move that would resurrect a fight that Republicans had waged for nearly a decade, then largely abandoned in 2018.
  • In an interview that aired Monday morning on Breitbart News Radio, Johnson said the GOP's main goal was to obstruct President Biden and Democrats' agenda until, he hoped, Republicans could win back the majorities in the House and Senate in the midterm elections this year. If Republicans also won the White House in 2024, he added, that would be when they could "actually make good on what we established as our priorities."
  • "For example, if we're going to repeal and replace Obamacare — I still think we need to fix our health care system — we need to have the plan ahead of time so that once we get in office, we can implement it immediately, not knock around like we did last time and fail," Johnson said, referring colloquially to the signature legislation of former president Barack Obama.
  • The last time Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, under former president Donald Trump, the GOP's long-promised efforts to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act failed after three moderate Republicans refused to support their party's plan.
  • Since Biden took office, Obamacare has only grown more popular. The White House announced last year that about 31 million Americans now have health-care coverage through the Affordable Care Act, a record high since the law was enacted in 2010. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Biden ordered an extended three-month enrollment period last year for people to buy health insurance through ACA's federal marketplaces at HealthCare.gov. During that special enrollment period, more than 1.2 million additional Americans enrolled in health-care plans through Obamacare, the White House said.
  • In the same Breitbart News Radio interview that aired Monday, Johnson said he supported "most" of Scott's proposal, according to a clip of the interview posted by American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic group.