On Wednesday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “Katy Tur Reports,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) blamed Republicans for not extending Obamacare subsidies and defended the sunset clause for them by saying that “Sunset clauses are pretty normal in legislation so you can look back at it, see where you are, see where numbers should be.”
Klobuchar said, “Katy, there’s only one party to blame on this front. … They have had months to come to us and say, we want to do something about these healthcare premiums, we’re going to extend them. We gave them one year, two year, three years, and they just keep saying no. They can’t get to yes.”
Host Katy Tur then asked, “I know you’re blaming the Republican Party here, but the Democrats were the ones that passed these subsidies to begin with, and there was always a sunset clause. Why was there a sunset clause here?”
Klobuchar responded, “Sunset clauses are pretty normal in legislation so you can look back at it, see where you are, see where numbers should be. And what we’ve seen here, as pointed out — and I would do a whole bunch of things differently, I would negotiate prices of all prescription drugs. I’d have a public option. But right now, what we have in front of us right now are these escalating premiums. And they have a choice. They can either be on the side of the 75% of people who live in the red states that have these policies, as well as the 25% that are in blue states, that’s the breakdown on these policies. They can help their farmers, 23% of farmers and ranchers are on these plans, or they can just say, we’re just letting it go, we don’t have a plan. We want to have a robust discussion. The time for discussion is done. The time for action is now.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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