One of the Tea Party’s top stars in Congress has penned an Obamacare op-ed co-bylined by Nebraska Senate candidate Ben Sasse.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sasse argue that Obamacare’s failures offer an opportunity for conservatives to be a movement that represents solutions and stands on the side of working-class Americans.
“Republicans cannot win the healthcare debate until we effectively communicate our solutions to the problems that plague working families,” they write in Thursday op-ed in the Washington Examiner.
The article comes two days after Obama took what was considered a “victory lap” to tout the 7.1 million Americans who have enrolled in Obamacare. “If we are unwilling or unclear, the president will continue to mislead, government will continue to grow, and our healthcare system will continue to unravel,” the two Republicans write.
Sasse and Lee, who was the architect of the strategy to defund Obamacare last fall, blasted Obama’s Tuesday Rose Garden victory lap speech Tuesday, saying the only thing missing was a “Mission Accomplished” banner.
Sasse, who has been surging as the anti-Obamacare candidate, and Lee, who has been touting solutions to make conservatives the party of the working class, wrote that Obama had a moment of honesty when he said that Obamacare is “working” and “doing exactly what it is supposed to do.”
They write that Obamacare is forcing people to go on government-approved plans and limiting their health care options, requiring “millions of people to pay for services they’ll never use, such as seniors with adult children paying for maternity care, and ” vacuuming “great sums of wealth from the middle class and put it under the control of government bureaucrats.”
“Unfortunately for the president, this was all news to the American people who are chomping at the bit to voice their disapproval for Obamacare at the ballot box this year,” they note. “That’s why, in a cynical attempt to save the Democratic majority in the Senate and what’s left of his failed administration, the president has delayed, repealed, and waived parts of Obamacare more than 30 times. Because it’s ‘working.'”
Lee and Sasse note that most of the people who are enrolled in Obamacare are those who were previously insured while “premiums have increased by $2,900 per family per year” and “millions have lost health insurance altogether as “businesses are being forced to let workers go or cut hours.”
While Obama implied that his mission was complete on Tuesday, Lee and Sasse write that the mission for conservatives “has only begun” because “the American people deserve more than Obama’s false choice between big-government solutions and cold indifference.”
“By articulating a conservative vision for the American people, Republicans can build trust and offer honest solutions,” they conclude.
Sasse has been endorsed by Lee, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose endorsement arguably packs the most impact in a GOP primary, and the Senate Conservatives Fund. Sasse is in a dead-heat with top rival Shane Osborn, a Navy veteran and former State Treasurer in Nebraska.
Last year during the botched Obamacare rollout, Sasse wrote in an op-ed for Breitbart News in which he stressed that Obamacare was a “teachable moment” that conservatives had to use to explain to Americans how damaging the law is. He also said conservatives had the use the opportinity to “outline our vision detailing conservative, small-government, patient-centric solutions to fix our broken health care system.”
“This is an important time in the life of our country,” Sasse wrote then. “Republicans should embrace this moment, not hide from it.”
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