I’m with a small group of reporters in a D.C. coffee shop, chatting with Florida Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio. He just mentioned that there are two parts within the Obamacare legislation that he doesn’t want repealed.* The first is the ban on insurance companies denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and the second is that he thinks that children up to age 26 should be allowed to “buy into” their parents’ coverage.
Other bits from our chat:
“The reaction to the oil spill shows the federal government isn’t just broke, it’s broken.”
“You would think that by now we would have every skimmer on the face of the earth working in the Gulf coast.”
“There’s a sense in America that we’re the only country on the planet that’s afraid to enforce our border laws.”
“Arizona has a 10th Amendment right to provide for the security of its residents.”
“If you want to stop more Arizona-style laws in other states, secure the border . . . I think the lawsuit against Arizona will fail.”
Rubio, on his rise, lists Jim DeMint, Mike Pence, and “the fact that National Review put me on the cover was a big deal.”
* UPDATE: Team Rubio seeks to clarify:
Marco believes the health care law should be repealed — all of it. And in its place, we should adopt common sense reforms for which broad agreement exists. Some of these ideas were lumped in with the monstrosity of the final bill. He outlined those today. They were the same ones included in Republican alternatives, including the Coburn plan, which Marco highlighted at the time as a good piece of legislation.
I'm a Rubio fan, but it completely boggles my mind how any conservative could think that banning insurance companies from denying on the basis of pre-existing conditions will do anything but drive up the cost of medical coverage.
Even liberals acknowledge this - which is why there is an individual mandate to purchase in the bill.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMarco Rubio in an instant has become a major disappointment. He appears to be everything that has been wrong with the Republican party. As soon as he falls behind in the polls, he immediately takes a middle ground position on health care, rather than a principled conservative position. The simple reason the health care bill needs to be repealed, is the basis for it is wrong. Obama's primary complaint was that people shouldn't be denied coverage for a pre exsisting condition. That is simply a far left position. The moment you require insurers to take anyone regardless of condition, then why would anyone get health insurance, you simply would wait until you get sick and then buy insurance. The only people who would then buy insurance would be sick people, creating a high risk pool and in turn high medical insurnace premiums. Even free market economically challenged Obama understands this, thus the need to mandate everyone buy insurance. So either Marco Rubio doesnt is less informed about basic econmics than Obama or he is tossing his principles to appease the masses, neither one is attractive and neither one ever wins. If floridans want a guy who will say anything to get elected, why not get the expert in Christ, if they want a liberal who knows nothing about economics, then they will vote for Meek. Rubio just took away the reason to vote for him. The same goes for the provision to get "kids" on your policy until they are 26, since when did "kids: become 26, in the real world most people have jobs by then, only future liberal politicans getting their PhD in southeast asian feminist literture at some ivy league school aren't working by the time they are 26
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse