When he heard Republicans talking about a fast repeal and replacement of “Obamacare” last fall, John Boehner says he laughed out loud.
The former Republican Speaker of the House was speaking to a medical conference in Orlando, Florida when he made the remarks.
He told the crowd he knew right away that Donald Trump’s promise to immediately unravel President Obama’s signature achievement was wildly optimistic. In fact he called it nothing more than “happy talk.”
Boehner resigned from his position as the leader of the House of Representatives in 2015. The long time conservative power broker was essentially pushed out by the far right members of the “Freedom Caucus,” a group of ultra-right Congressmen. They were pushing Boehner to shut down the entire government in order to pull funding from Planned Parenthood, among other fringe-right concerns.
The former Speaker knows far better than most people just how argumentative his party members can be, especially when it comes to the question of health insurance. After all, the GOP has had more than eight years to come up with a plan that would be able to fully replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). He said:
“Republicans never ever agree on health care.”
He should know. He lead dozens of attempts to repeal and replace the health care law while he was in charge on the hill.
Boehner is confident that it’s going to take more than a little time for his party to come up with a plan to replace the ACA. Not only that, but he’s pretty sure that most of it is going to stay just the way it is. According to the former Speaker,
“Most of the framework of the Affordable Care Act … that’s going to be there.”
Amazing how things change once politicians leave office. John Boehner was famous in his time for his spray tan, his easy tears and his conservative views.
Now he sounds positively reasonable. He seems to actually understand that facts are facts and can’t be twisted around to fit one side’s ideas.
Right now it’s hard to believe that this is the same Republican who shut down the entire government for more than two weeks in 2013 to protect the country “against the threat of Obamacare.”
Oh, the irony.
Watch this and shake your head at the hypocrisy.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
