New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) engaged in a tense back-and-forth with an Obamacare advocate Tuesday, pleasing the crowd when he told her he won’t invest any more money in a “failed federal program.”
During a town hall in South River, N.J., Christie engaged in a heated exchange with Maura Collinsgru of New Jersey Citizen Action. Collinsgru accused Christie of responding to their attempts to contact him about Medicaid expansion with “silence.” But Christie disagreed.
“That’s not part of the silence you’ve been met with when I expanded the Medicaid program. Excuse me, let me ask you this: When I expanded the Medicaid program, is that silence?” Christie asked.
The Obamacare advocate continued, criticizing Christie for not accepting federal dollars to help fund the expansion. The governor, though, made it clear he was no fan of the Affordable Care Act and slammed the woman for twisting her facts in an effort to further her “agenda.”
“You’re simply wrong,” he said. “To stand up here and misinform people because you have an agenda is simply incorrect.”
Christie made it clear he was not in favor of Obamacare while the woman clearly was — a response that prompted applause from those attending the town hall.
“You believe that Obamacare works, and I believe it does not,” he said. “And I’m not going to invest further money in a failed federal program.”
According to the New Jersey Star-Ledger, the Garden State missed a Department of Health and Human Services-imposed deadline last month to submit a plan showing how it would use a $7.6 million federal grant. Because the state failed to provide its plan, New Jersey was forced to return federal funds it had previously received to help set up a state-run marketplace under Obamacare.
Though New Jersey ultimately decided to operate under the federal exchange, the state was allowed to keep the money for consumer outreach.
Watch Christie and Collinsgru’s tense exchange below, courtesy of CNN.
