Former House Speaker John Boehner believes Republicans will “never” repeal Obamacare because Americans “have gotten accustomed to it,” but failure to do so would cause them to be “annihilated” during the 2018 midterm elections.
“Here we are, seven months into this year, and yet they’ve not passed this bill,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said to a group in Las Vegas, according to a video recording obtained by the Washington Post.
“Now, they’re never … they’re not going to repeal and replace Obamacare. It’s been around too long. And the American people have gotten accustomed to it. Governors have gotten accustomed to this Medicaid expansion, and so trying to pull it back is really not going to work.”
Boehner made similar comments at a conference in February, when he predicted that Republicans would make only small fixes to the law rather than repeal it.
“They’re basically going to fix the flaws and put a more conservative box around it,” Boehner said at the time.
Still, he had recommendations last week for his former colleagues. He said they should repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate that requires people buy insurance or pay a fine, as well as the employer mandate that requires businesses with more than 50 full-time employees offer health insurance. The law’s taxes and regulations also should go, he said. If Republicans fail to pass bills on healthcare, taxes and infrastructure, then he said he believed they would suffer major losses during the 2018 election.
“They’re going to get annihilated,” he said.
Boehner’s comments came before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that the vote on beginning debate on a House-passed healthcare bill would occur Tuesday afternoon. The bill repeals and replaces portions of Obamacare, and Republicans need 50 votes to begin debate and cannot afford to lose the support of more than two senators.
