An official presidential campaign Twitter account of Republican Marco Rubio pushed a lofty new boast this week, suggesting the first-term Florida senator singlehandedly did away with President Barack Obama's signature health care law.
Q: Did Marco Kill Obamacare? A: You bet he did. https://t.co/PTkpe0f95L via @LegInsurrection
— Team Marco (@TeamMarco) November 24, 2015
Not exactly. Rubio's claim is an exaggeration, but one that's wrapped around a kernel of truth. Last year, he successfully pushed to undermine a market-stabilizing mechanism [risk corridors] in Obamacare, which has since led to some insurers dropping out of the exchanges and may cause higher premiums. He used a “must-pass” omnibus federal spending bill to do that, and with Congress facing a Dec. 11 deadline to get another sweeping government spending bill passed this year, Rubio is hoping to keep alive his poison pill to damage the controversial health care law.As Steve Benen notes, Glug Glug, the corporate media favorite to save the Republican Party, was willing to sacrifice health insurance for millions of Americans in order to get daps from the knuckle draggers:
[I]f Rubio intended to do real harm by gutting the risk corridor program, he succeeded – his effort has had a detrimental effect on the system. [snip]
The unnerving part of this is that Rubio introduced a degree of chaos into the system just for the sake of doing so. His gambit doesn’t actually help anyone, and it certainly doesn’t improve anyone’s health security, but that’s not why the senator did it. Rather, this was about taking steps to undermine the nation’s health care system just so Rubio could brag to far-right voters about his destructive prowess.It's heartening to know, since he's not running for reelection and is not going to be President, this little nihilist fraud (who enrolled his own family in Obamacare) will be gone and, hopefully, soon forgotten.
(Photo: Be sure and bring more water. It's hot down on the Eighth Circle of Hell, gusano!)
