Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Tuesday pounced on Jeb Bush’s healthcare proposal unvieled in New Hampshire, calling it “Obamacare Lite” and arguing that it represents surrender to liberalism.
Though Jindal said he applauded Bush for releasing a detailed plan in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner, he went on to say, “Unfortunately, both Jeb’s plan and Obamacare are both new federal entitlement programs in which the federal government pays for universal healthcare for all Americans. This is not an opinion, it is a fact.”
Jindal argued, “Jeb’s plan is rejection of the American ideal of individual independence, and an acceptance of the left’s demand for more government dependence. Jeb’s plan is Obamacare lite. President Obama succeeded in doing what Hillary had failed to do years before — to create a new federal entitlement program where the government pays for healthcare for all Americans. Never mind the fact that our existing entitlement programs are on the verge of bankruptcy.”
He continued, “If Jeb’s health care plan were to become the Republican alternative, it will mean that Obama and the left have won the fundamental debate about health care in America. It will mean that Republicans have decided to surrender and to accept the idea that taxpayers must pay for a new federal entitlement program providing health care for all. There is an empty podium available tonight for Joe Biden in the Democrat debate. Jeb should take that spot in order to argue for his Obamacare-lite health care proposal. My plan focuses on the real problem with healthcare in America — the need to reduce costs.”
He concluded, “Finally, it appears that Jeb’s plan is silent on the little detail of what it will cost, which is a hallmark of all things Washington.”
Jindal, who places ninth in the Examiner power rankings, has taken aim at a number of Republican health proposals along similar lines. His beef is with proposals that are based around providing tax credits to individuals to purchase insurance, which are more like government spending, because they are given to individuals even with little or no tax burden. Jindal himself proposed a plan that’s based on providing a standard tax deduction for the purchase of insurance, which critics argue wouldn’t do enough to expand coverage because low-income individuals wouldn’t have a high enough tax burden against which to take advantage of the deduction. Jindal has countered that focusing on expanding coverage is a concession to liberal ideology, and that he instead prefers to emphasize cost.
UPDATE: Bush spokesman Tim Miller hit back in an email to the Examiner: “Jindal himself supported tax credits as a conservative solution after Obamacare. This is just an attempt to get attention because he is losing to Hillary Clinton in his home state while Jeb is beating her by 18 points.” Miller also provided a link to this piece by the National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru, who wrote:
In October 2009—well into the debate over Obamacare–he wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post touting, among other things, “refundable tax credits.” In November 2010, months after Obamacare passed, he was quoted commending the idea: “Jindal said he’s in favor of repealing the law and replacing it with better legislation. ‘Nobody was happy with the way health care was before,’ he said. ‘We need refundable tax credits to help people, so they’re not faced with either government-run Medicaid or emergency rooms or being uninsured.'”
