John Boehner wins today's Grassley award for taking credit for the bill he fought tooth and nail to stop. And says that, despite the fact that everybody but insurance company CEOs wanted the practice of rescissions to end, it was the GOP's idea. So, uh, repeal it, but not that part. Not that part that we like, too. Steve Benen catches him on NPR:
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) spoke to NPR's Steve Inskeep this morning, and twice said Republicans would repeal the Affordable Care Act if given congressional majorities next year. (thanks to reader A.D.)
It led to an interesting exchange:
INSKEEP: As you know, Democrats are already pointing to things that are changing in America because of this bill. They will point to the fact that college seniors, who would have been kicked off their families' insurance plans when they graduated, will get to stay on. Insurance companies are now saying they're going to end the practice of "rescission," where they take, or at least modify...
BOEHNER: Both of those ideas, by the way, came from Republicans, and are part of the common sense ideas that we ought to have in the law.
INSKEEP: Well, are you going to repeal those two specific things?
BOEHNER Uh, what I want to repeal are the other 158 mandates, commissions, boards that set up all the infrastructure for the government to take control of our health care system. [emphasis added]
...Boehner is being especially shameless here. He is, after all, the one who characterized the new law as "Armageddon." I guess the new line will need some caveats: "It's Armageddon ... except for those popular parts, which Republicans should get credit for, even though we voted against them."
So they were for it even while they did everything they could to kill it, and still want to kill it, except for what they are for? Yeah, that's a message to run on.