Lawmaker: Failed effort to defund is now ‘victory’
WASHINGTON — The congressman from Texas has just the analogy for the GOP’s failed attempt to shutdown the government.
The Alamo.
“In every loss, there can be a victory,” Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, told WND.
The congressman explained, just as the loss at the Alamo led to the creation of Texas, the losing battle to stop Obamacare has become a victory, because now the Democrats have to explain why their health care law has become such a disaster.
Stockman saw an irony, noting, “We wanted to delay, for one year, the individual mandate. And he (President Obama) shut the whole government down. He said, ‘I will not negotiate.’ Now, the Democrats are coming back and asking for the very thing that they refused to do when the Republicans were asking.”
In his exclusive interview with WND, the congressman made a number of observations concerning the unfolding Obamacare disaster and what it means for Washington, the country and ordinary Americans, including:
- Obamacare will cause millions to lose their health insurance, the exact opposite of what the president promised.
- The Democrats’ refusal to delay Obamacare when Republicans made the offer could boomerang on them at the ballot box.
- No one can blame Obamacare on the GOP, though the media will still try.
- The Democrats will use the catastrophic roll-out of Obamacare to try to push for a single-payer system.
- Washington needs to get rid of Obamacare and start over from the beginning.
Obamacare is ‘wholly owned by the president’
With tongue in cheek, WND asked: With the Obamacare launch going down in flames, does Ted Cruz look more like a psychic or a genius? Stockman smiled and replied, “I always thought Cruz’s ploy, which was ridiculed by many of the party members, was brilliant,” adding, “People now know he’s a man of principle. So, I think it was smart. “One of my colleagues said, ‘You Texans would fight the Alamo all over again.’ I thought about it and said, ‘Yeah! We’ll fight the Alamo all over again because it created a great state.’” The Texan observed, “In every loss, there can be a victory. And, I think people now know that Republicans are not connected with Obamacare. No way. Our fingerprints are not on this. This is wholly owned by the president.” Make Democrats take responsibility for Obamacare
WND noted, Democrats suddenly want to delay many parts of the law, including the individual mandate. Of course, they had that opportunity recently and turned it down. Is it a good idea to delay the mandate, or make the Democrats live with it now and in 2014?
“We were called extremists and terrorists,” Stockman bluntly recalled, adding that convicted mass-murderer Nidal Hasan, “who murdered our soldiers, the president said we can’t call him a terrorist. But John Boehner and the Republicans were called terrorists.
“Why? Because we wanted to delay, for one year, the individual mandate. And he shut the whole government down. He said, ‘I will not negotiate.’”
Stockman said the Democrats are coming back and asking for the very thing they refused to do.
“So, after shutting down the government, they decide, ‘Hey we really do want a delay.’ I think, ‘No, you made your bed, you lie in it.’”
The congressman adamantly told Democrats, “This is not the Republicans’ fault. Stop blaming us for everything. Take responsibility. Medicare is going bankrupt, and now you create a new program which is also failing.”
Democrats realize Obamacare is falling apart
WND asked Stockman if his colleagues would still agree to delay the individual mandate for a year, or if they changed their minds now that they see what is happening. “I think the Democrats in the Senate may realize this law is falling apart. It’s going to impact their elections, just as I predicted,” he dryly noted. He said he believes the more insurance companies raise their rates and throw people off their plans, the more people will realize “everything the president has promised is not coming true.” “It’s ironic,” he said. “They said that they passed this bill to cover 30 million uninsured Americans. And it did the exact opposite. It kicked 16 million off the rolls, 16 million. So right now this bill has caused more damage to health care and has done the exact opposite of what the president promised.” When asked what Republicans should do now, Stockman said the GOP should emphasize it had nothing to do with the drafting of the law and highlight the fact it is falling apart. “It (the health-care law) needs to be dropped and redone,” he said. “We need to get rid of it and start from the beginning.” Should the GOP try again to defund Obamacare?
There’s going to be another opportunity for the GOP to try to defund Obamacare when the debt and budget issues come up again in a few months. WND asked if it would be worth fighting that battle again.
“I think what we need to do is look at the structure of our debt,” he said. “I don’t know if our Senate colleagues have changed their opinion. I know the Democrats have, in terms of wanting a delay.”
What if red-state Democrats begin to flip?
If someone’s self-destructing, I don’t know if we should stop them from doing that.
Will the Democrats push for a single-payer health-care system?
Rush Limbaugh has speculated that the Democrats turned Obamacare into a disaster on purpose to create demand for a single-payer system. WND asked the congressman if he agrees with that statement. “Obama said from the outset he wanted a single payer,” Stockman replied. “I think this bill was designed to drive everyone to single payer. It’s already happening, when you have millions of people being dropped from their insurance and being forced onto government rolls.” He added, “It’s just a matter of time, through attrition, that you’re going to see more and more people end up on the government roll.” Then the congressman offered a prediction, saying, “They will want more money to ‘fix it.’ And they’re going to want more government bureaucrats to resolve it.” He added, “It’s an odd thing. It’s like saying my house is burning, so we need more gasoline to put the fire out. It doesn’t make sense.”
Who is responsible for the Obamacare disaster?
Should Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius be fired?
“Holder should be fired for things he’s done,” Stockman said. “The head of the IRS should be fired. Sebelius should be fired. But the only one who got fired and punished was the guy who was tweeting in the White House, saying the truth. So, the one person that speaks up gets fired.”
Is this Obama’s Waterloo?
Asked if this situation is Obama’s Waterloo, Stockman replied with some weariness, “No, because I hear the press rallying the troops again. “The new slogan is ‘Don’t nix it – fix it.’ We’re back to slogans, and every leftist seems to solve a problem with a slogan.” But, he insisted, “We need to get rid of it because it is a failed program. We need to cut our losses. If this were a private corporation, all the stock holders would pull the funding. But, instead, they’re asking to put more and more money into it. “It’s throwing good money after bad. They had plenty of money and plenty of time to get this up and going. And people are finding out, more and more, that this is just a bad idea.” Stockman advised starting fresh with more free-market ideas. “Republicans had offered alternative plans multiple times,” he noted. “And the press won’t cover it. They need to cover it.” Will Democrats negotiate on Obamacare now?
Garth Kant is WND Washington news editor. Previously, he spent five years writing, copy-editing and producing at “CNN Headline News,” three years writing, copy-editing and training writers at MSNBC, and also served several local TV newsrooms as producer, executive producer and assistant news director. He is the author of the McGraw-Hill textbook, “How to Write Television News.”
Asked if Democrats will negotiate on Obamacare now, Stockman said, “The president promised an open process when, in fact, he locked the doors and kept the Republicans out. This bill was drafted primarily by Democrats. And, I might add, big insurance companies were in that room.”
Stockman hoped the Democrats would come to the table and take some Republican ideas.
He said people to have the right to get their health care without interference from a third party: “It should be a choice between you and your doctor.”
