On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” columnist Charles Krauthammer argued that the American Health Care Act’s defeat was a philosophical victory for President Obama, and “The country has changed. There is now the generalized expectation that there is an entitlement to universal healthcare.”
Krauthammer said, “The big picture, I think, is that it’s a victory for — philosophically, for Obama. He — this is now seven years since the act was put into place. The country has changed. There is now the generalized expectation that there is an entitlement to universal healthcare. That was always around to some extent, but I think if you listen to the terms of the debate, the main argument was who’s going to lose, how many are going to lose? Which implies that nobody ought to lose, everybody ought to have healthcare. And I think, philosophically, what did the Republicans have to offer? The Obamacare bill said universal healthcare. The bill that [House Speaker Representative Paul] Ryan (R-WI) was offering was, what — how could you, other than we made a promise, we want to keep it, what was the essence of it? There wasn’t.”
Krauthammer continued that Republicans should have put everything they want it one bill, sent it to the Senate, “and then let the Democrats kill it with a filibuster. If that’s where the country is, let it be that way, and then the Republicans at least will not have a political black eye.”
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