Harry Reid: 'The Numbers Are Really Pretty Good' for Obamacare

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) dismissed reports that as the Obamacare implementation deadline looms, businesses in the United States are cutting hours for more employees or going through rounds of layoffs. 

When asked by Breitbart News how these businesses and individuals could find any benefit in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Reid did not directly address the widespread shortening of the work week. He responded by referring to a “a really good” Obamacare segment he saw on PBS’s NewsHour on Monday night.

And after watching that, it only made me feel more strongly about how important this is, for–“Obamacare” for small businesses, for people without insurance, for people with insurance.
So I think that “Obamacare” is the right thing for the country. And it’s going to–people are accepting this. As you know, as I talked about on the floor this morning, the numbers are really pretty good for “Obamacare,” and that’s an understatement.

So–and once exchanges kick in, it will be one of–it will be just like Medicare. People complained about Medicare in the early ’60s, but not for long, because once it came into effect, people understood how it worked, just like me. I was a chairman of a great–the biggest hospital district in Nevada. Prior to Medicare, 40 percent of the seniors that came into the hospital had no insurance, and they suffered as a result of that. Medicare came into being; 99.9 percent now have it. And that’s the same thing on “Obamacare.” It’s going to be the same.

Following Reid’s and later Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s remarks, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to the floor of the upper chamber and announced he would speak “until [he was] no longer able to stand.” 

Cruz began his remarks about the problems of Obamacare at 2:41 PM EST. Other GOP senators have joined Cruz on the floor. They include: Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), Senator David Vitter (R-LA), Senator Mike Lee (R -UT), and Senator Jeff Sessions (R -AL).