Cruz asked about health care, faces protestors

These dire warnings and predictions, however, have not stopped almost every Republican in Congress from repeatedly campaigning on and voting for bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act “root and branch”.

Governor of Kentucky Matt Bevin speaks at 2017 SelectUSA Investment Summit in Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S., June 19, 2017.

At a town hall-style forum in Austin on Thursday, Sen. William Cassidy (R-LA) said if Republicans vote for a straight Obamacare repeal without a replacement in place, it will betray “President Trump’s campaign pledges”. McConnell and Cruz have clashed before, most notably in July 2015 when Cruz called McConnell a liar during a debate on the export import bank on the Senate floor.

But the Cruz amendment could also isolate other more moderate senators in the conference, who already have deep reservations about the bill, including how it might negatively impact patients with pre-existing conditions.

There have been at least 10 Republican defectors to the plan, after North Dakota Senator John Hoeven signalled last week that he couldn’t support the current version of the bill. Cruz gave a lengthy answer explaining why he thinks it should be repealed.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (right) with Sens. Cruz is pushing for an amendment to be added to the bill favored by conservatives, which would make it easier for states to opt out of certain Obamacare regulations.

“We’ve got to do something to reinject free-market forces into this environment”, Lee said earlier this month on CBS’ Face the Nation. He says a plan to allow more privatization would cost more. Democrats have ruled out negotiating with Republicans unless they work to fix the law, not repeal it.

Instead of having Marsh and the other protesters dragged out, Cruz let Marsh continue forseveral minutes before reiterating the failures he sees with Obamacare.

In a letter to Senate leaders last month, a group of over 40 US economists, including six Nobel Prize winners, had expressed strong opposition to the Senate healthcare bill.

On ABC’s “This Week”, Cruz said that colleagues like Grassley were simply being misled.

Conservatives say allowing consumers to buy the type of coverage they want is the best way to drive down premiums. “That, I think, is the most fundamental reform, and it’s something I’m fighting very hard to do”.

Cruz also faced fervent pushback at various meetings around Texas.

“We have had – for seven years – we have promised to do that”, he told an audience at the Renaissance Austin Hotel. “And the way to get lower prices is to have more and more choices”. The event was sponsored by the conservative group Concerned Veterans For America.

Senator Cruz will wrap up his town hall series in Houston on Saturday.

Republican Governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota are both considering asking for waivers to roll back Obamacare provisions once the Senate Republican health care bill is passed.

Cruz rose to national prominence through his opposition to Obamacare and ran for president in 2016 with a declared mission to repeal “every word” of the law.

‘For years, even as a “civilian”, I listened as Republicans pushed the Repeal and Replace of ObamaCare. In the decades that followed, the party failed to seriously address health care, even when they had complete control over Washington under former President George W. Bush.