Gohmert: We Had to Shut Down Govt. or People Would ‘Suffer’ and ‘Die’ From Obamacare
“Anybody that thinks the Affordable Care Act helps seniors doesn’t really understand what’s unaffordable to seniors,” Gohmert explained. “It makes most of the Medicare Advantage plans go up, but you’ve got to remember, Obamacare actually cut $716 billion dollars from Medicare and seniors rely on Medicare.”
However, Medicare benefits were not cut by the Affordable Care Act. As The Washington Post’s Wonkblog pointed out last year, the $716 billion cut from the program had to do with how hospitals were reimbursed.
The Texas congressman also defended his party’s decision to force a shutdown of the federal government in an attempt to repeal, defund or delay Obamacare.
“When you know how dramatically people are adversely affected, do you want to let people suffer and potentially die?” Gohmert asked. “We felt like we had to try and put it off, you just really couldn’t, in good conscience, not try to suspend it.”
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