Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., admitted Thursday that Republicans on the campaign trail over-promised by saying repeatedly that they would repeal and replace Obamacare.
“I come from the business world where the standard is to always underpromise and overdeliver. I did that for 30-some years in business,” Johnson said. “I would say that’s … one of the reasons after the election why I started talking about what we ought to do is repair the damage, focus on repairing the damage and working to transition to a system that actually works.”
“I think it’s far more realistic expectations. I think it’s exactly what we’re trying to do at this point,” Johnson said. “But that advice wasn’t heeded. Everybody loved the slogan ‘repeal/replace,’ and yeah, I would say that was an overpromise.”
The comment comes a day after former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said in an interview that the promise was foolhardy by Republicans and said he “never believed” the rhetoric when Barack Obama was still president.
“To give the impression that if Republicans were in control of the House and Senate, that we could do that when Obama was still in office… I never believed it,” he said.
Johnson has been a key player for healthcare and was the 50th vote on Wednesday on a motion to proceed measure to allow healthcare repeal to move on to debate. He has also been a vocal opponent of the process Republicans have used in their effort to repeal the law.
