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U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) gave a shaky answer when asked what is the GOP’s plan to address the health care crisis in the United States as Affordable Care Act subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year. During an appearance on CNN’s “The Source” on Tuesday, Moreno claimed that Democrats “failed” to give Americans “affordable” health care. He argued that Obamacare has “proven is that it’s a total abject failure at keeping costs affordable” before CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins asked him what the GOP plan is to address these high costs. “Republicans did not vote for Obamacare. They did not vote for these Biden-era COVID subsidies. The Democrats did,” Moreno said. “But Senator, you’re saying that Republicans do have a plan,” Collins noted, to which Moreno said, “Absolutely.” Collins then asked Moreno what that plan is and whether people can see it. “The whole system can be looked at very holistically. But it’s going to take three or four months to really bring a consensus to that plan. In the meantime, what are we going to do? Keep the government closed, for three or four months every time that we have a policy debate? This isnuts,” Moreno said. Moreno then continued to attack Obamacare before Collins asked him what the GOP plan was to replace it, noting that the subsidies are expiring at the end of the year. Democrats have warned that health care premiums will skyrocket for millions of Americans without an extension of those subsidies. “The increase is happening because Obamacare is broken. It’s a complete, abject failure. There isn’t a single Republican that voted for Obamacare. This is a Democrat plan. You should ask the next Democrat that you have on, ‘What is your plan to fix your health care plan,’because it’s objectively terrible,” Moreno said. “I’m not defending Obamacare or the subsidies on that. But it has been 15 years. I know you’ve only been in the Senate. You’re new to Washington, relatively new. But some people may say, Well, there’s been 15 years since Obamacare passed. We haven’t seen a Republican plan to replace it,” Collins said. Moreno said: “Obama was president for four years. President Trump was president for four years. And then, of course, Biden came in and made everything objectively worse. And by the way, you can’t defend Obamacare, because it’s indefensible.” Collins then noted that Moreno admitted that Republicans had the majority across all three branches of government during Trump’s first term without coming up with a plan. “But you’re acknowledging there was a Republican president in between those two Democrats who’s now back in office,” she said. It’s not clear when the government shutdown might end. Democrats have vowed to oppose a GOP-spending bill that does not include an extension for health care subsidies that are expiring at the end of the year, and Republicans have refused to negotiate on the issue.
