Repeal/Replace
Master Text 081815
Cass Screw Machine Products
Brooklyn, MN
Thank you, Cass Screw Machine Products, for your hospitality, it’s always good to be across the river in Minnesota. I hope your Vikings are having a good training camp in Mankato, they are going to need it for those Packers games.
America is a can-do kind of country. We just have a government in Washington that can't seem to get the job done. Washington: or as I call it, 68 square miles surrounded by reality.
The good news is it wasn’t too late for Wisconsin and it isn’t too late for America.
To do this, we need new, fresh leadership; leadership with big, bold ideas from outside of Washington; the kind of leadership that can actually get things done.
Americans are frustrated and angry with Washington, and so am I.
President Obama has left us with a weak economy at home and a failed foreign policy abroad.
Hillary Clinton will continue to lead America down this path of failure.
You know who else has failed us? The Washington political establishment.
I hear that message time and time again on the campaign trail all across this great country.
Washington is broken and the only thing that can change the culture of failure and doing nothing is electing someone from outside of Washington. I’m here to tell you, I’m about as far removed from Washington as you can be.
The difference between the great group of candidates we have on the Republican side is experience -- experience in taking on the big fights and winning. I’ve done both, I’ve fought and I’ve won, time and again, for the hard working taxpayers.
I was first elected Governor in 2010 at a time when Wisconsin voters were as frustrated with the direction of the state as voters are today with the direction of the country.
The Democrats controlled everything and drove unemployment over 9 percent, created budget deficit of $3.6 billion, and lost 130 thousand jobs.
It was so bad the incumbent Democratic Governor chose to retire rather than face a frustrated electorate.
We took on the establishment in 2010 and we won.
They said change was impossible; the political establishment, the union bosses and the liberal big government special interests in Madison were too entrenched and too powerful to defeat.
They were wrong.
We won the race because we offered a plan to move my state forward. The establishment struck back at me, and I beat them again.
We didn’t nibble around the edges; we confronted the establishment head-on and changed how government worked -- we went big and bold, ended the stranglehold of the special interests, and Wisconsin taxpayers are better off.
We have a rainy day fund 165 times bigger than it was, we’ve created over 145 thousand new jobs, over 32 thousand businesses have opened their doors and unemployment is down to 4.6 percent.
It wasn’t too late for Wisconsin and it isn’t too late for America.
In 2010 I ran against ObamaCare. On Day One as governor I signed onto the lawsuit to get rid of it. And every step of the way I’ve remained steadfast in my desire to repeal it.
While others were more interested in protecting big government and their own health care - I and other great governors like Rick Perry, and Bobby Jindal stood against Washington – rejected the Medicaid expansion under ObamaCare.
ObamaCare was forced on the American people by Democrats who think the government knows best, chief among them, Hillary Clinton.
You see, the seeds of ObamaCare were first planted by Hillary Clinton in the early 90s as part of her failed health care plan, HillaryCare, and in her 2008 campaign’s health care proposal.
Although Hillary Clinton’s health care proposals failed, many of their central provisions – including the individual mandate and harsh penalties for those who don’t purchase insurance – succeeded in making their way into ObamaCare.
So let’s call Obamacare what it is: the result of a decades-long plan by the most liberal wing of the Democratic Party to seize control of health care choice and freedom from individuals and states, and hand total power over to the federal government in Washington.
That makes Hillary Clinton just as responsible for this disastrous law as the president.
Hillary Clinton doesn’t want to admit it, but ObamaCare has failed.
It was forced on the nation by raw partisan power and blatant political dishonesty.
If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. False. Health care premiums will go down. False. It will reduce the federal deficit. False. I could go on, but you get the picture.
Five years later, Americans still don’t support Obamacare. We don’t like it, and we don’t want to keep it. Therefore, we must pull this dysfunctional and destructive law out by the roots.
When I announced my run for the Presidency several weeks ago, I said I’d begin to repeal and replace Obamacare on Day One – just like I approved Wisconsin joining the lawsuit against Obamacare the first day I was in office as Governor.
As president, I will erase this mistake and build a better system, because Americans deserve more than the failed policies and false promises of ObamaCare.
The list of problems caused by ObamaCare is long.
For consumers, insurance premiums are up and choice is down.
For the “newly covered,” the majority have been dumped into Medicaid or were insured but kicked off plans they were promised they could keep.
For businesses and workers, costly mandates and messy red tape are destroying jobs.
Under ObamaCare, premium increases are as high as 30 percent in some states.
ObamaCare has hit Millennials particularly hard. In Minnesota, for example, premiums for young people increased by about 19 percent.
In 2014 alone, ObamaCare kicked millions of people off their preferred health plans and forced them to buy ObamaCare or face a tax penalty.
It is time to clear the tracks of this huge train wreck.
Today I am offering a detailed and specific plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare. I want to thank several people – my friend Paul Ryan who is a leader out in Washington. I don’t praise our capital very often but Paul and others like Congressman Tom Price are leading the charge to change the status quo just like me.
So here is what I would do:
First, repeal ObamaCare lock, stock and barrel. On my first day in office I would send draft legislation to the Congress, and they would have 100 days to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
If they fail to meet this deadline Congress would finally face the same premium increases that Americans have suffered from under ObamaCare. That’s because on day one I would remove Obama’s special deal for Congress – giving themselves special subsidies – by simply following ObamaCare according to the letter of the law.
Second, I’d build a better system by putting people in charge of their own health care, giving them more options, and making insurance more affordable.
Our plan provides a tax credit for Americans who don’t receive health care from their employer, whether it’s a part-time worker going back to school or an entrepreneur starting their own business. My plan will level the playing field for those who get coverage through their employer, and those who don’t.
My plan ensures people cannot be dropped from coverage or hit with high costs because they get sick or have a pre-existing health condition. These Americans may have fallen through the cracks in the past, but our plan protects them.
We will improve health savings accounts by adding a $1,000 refundable tax credit and significantly increasing the contribution limit to $6,250 for individuals and $12,500 for families. And we would allow HSAs to be rolled over to surviving children, parents, or grandparents –not just spouses. These reforms would give people more control over their own money.
Under my plan, we would allow Americans to purchase insurance from any state, dramatically increasing choices.
Third, my plan moves power away from Washington and to the states. That means returning regulatory authority over health care coverage to state and local leaders who know far better than federal bureaucrats how to look out for their friends and neighbors.
For the first time in our state’s history, every single one of our citizens in poverty have access to health care coverage through BadgerCare, our state’s Medicaid plan. In fact, every single person in Wisconsin has access to some type of affordable care — according to the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation — whether it is from BadgerCare, a private insurance plan, through an employer.
For Wisconsin, I made the right decision and rejected the Medicaid expansion under ObamaCare – the so-called “free federal money.” There is no such thing as “free federal money” – it all comes from you, the taxpayer. Instead, we focused on making our current program better, while working to move more Wisconsinites to private coverage.
My plan would finally fix Medicaid and give control to the states. It would focus Medicaid to ensure the most vulnerable are being served, by separating the different functions it now performs. Medicaid for those below poverty would be reformed based on the successful 1996 welfare reform law. Acute care services and long-term support services for low income seniors and those with disabilities would be run separately.
My plan liberates states, caregivers and innovators from having to petition Washington bureaucrats for permission to do something new and bold. Instead we get Washington out of the way.
Fourth, my plan allows for innovative group purchasing of health care, which drives down costs. It includes responsible tort reform that protects victims and prevents frivolous lawsuits that drive up costs. Smart, common sense tort reform is a critical element to ensuring every citizen has ready access to high quality care, protecting the rights of patients, and protecting the vast majority of medical professionals who take pride in their profession.
My plan also supports wellness programs that incentivize and challenge people to adopt healthy lifestyles that will reduce long-term health care costs.
The Clinton-Obama mindset is to put government in the middle of all health care decisions, and move us in the direction of a European-style single-payer system. Americans knew this wouldn’t work in the early 90s with HillaryCare and they knew it wouldn’t work with ObamaCare in 2010. They were right. But Washington refused to listen.
ObamaCare wasn’t just a Washington power grab – it dramatically increased spending and taxes, and it irresponsibly raided Medicare. At a time when we face a looming federal fiscal crisis, it’s imperative that any proposal to replace ObamaCare detail how it would be paid for to ensure that, unlike ObamaCare, it does not worsen our fiscal condition.
The costs associated with these broad based “repeal and replace” principles would not be paid for through new taxes and mandates. In fact, we would repeal all of ObamaCare’s nearly $1 trillion in new taxes.
This would be accomplished by capping the amount of the tax exclusion for employer sponsored health care, and by empowering states to run Medicaid – enabling them to use funds more efficiently, with more direct accountability to the patients they cover.
This is consistent with my central belief that government that is closest to the people is best.
We understand that true freedom and prosperity don't come from the mighty hand of government; they come from empowering people to live their own lives, and control their own destinies.
That’s what we have to do with America’s health care system.
And that first big step is to begin repealing Obamacare on Day One.