Bill Clinton Schools Republicans on Facts About Obamacare

September 5, 2013 By Allen Clifton

 

 

 

Former President Bill Clinton has been asked to travel around the country and clarify the facts about the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”). Considering how much right-wing slander has been slung at the health care law, President Obama figured Clinton was the perfect person to speak on behalf of the truth about the law.

 

While speaking at his library in Little Rock, Arkansas, Clinton called on Republicans to improve Obamacare, not repeal it.

 

In fact, during his hour-long speech, he echoed something similar to that of Newt Gingrich, who called Republicans out for the same thing just a few weeks ago. Clinton, like Gingrich, called out Republicans for holding 40 different votes to repeal the landmark law—yet offering absolutely no alternatives if the law were to be repealed.
 

Which is absolutely true. Republicans have gone on for years about the “horrors” of the Affordable Care Act, yet haven’t offered any sort of alternative for the health care law.
Because the truth is—they don’t have any.

As Clinton said, not only have Republicans opposed the law, they’ve gone out of their way to undermine it as well.

This speech seemed to play off the comments made by President Obama just a few weeks ago when he said Republicans saw defeating Obamacare as the “holy grail” of the Republican party.

Clinton seems to have chose his home state as a staging point for this first big speech to highlight the bipartisan efforts Arkansas has exhibited in implementing the law.

While his speech wasn’t nearly as exciting as the one he gave at last year’s DNC, he obviously targeted parts of the health care law which many Republicans have made a career out of lying about.

He emphasized the state exchanges, which are one of the big driving forces behind the law, and noted that states which are fighting against the law are putting millions within their state at risk of not having health insurance.

But the overall context of his speech was the emphasis on bipartisan efforts to implement — and improve — the law. Which is something Republicans have made clear they have no intention of doing.


Which makes Clinton’s speeches that much more important. After years of right-wing misinformation, myths and blatant lies, President Obama hopes to use Clinton’s gift of explaining complex issues simply to battle the plethora of Republican distortions about the health care law.

So in the weeks ahead, Republicans like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul will spend an ample amount of time doing all they can to continue their campaign of fear and propaganda in a last-ditch effort to defund Obamacare. But President Obama has played the ace up his sleeve, and now has Bill Clinton in his corner to counter their lies.

We’ve got facts, reality and Bill Clinton. They’ve got propaganda, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. I have to say—I like our odds.

About Allen Clifton

Allen Clifton is from the Dallas-Fort Worth area and has a degree in Political Science. He is a co-founder of Forward Progressives, and author of the popular Right Off A Cliff column. He is also the founder of the Right Off A Cliff facebook page, on which he routinely voices his opinions and stirs the pot for the Progressive movement. Follow Allen on Twitter as well, @Allen_Clifton.

http://www.forwardprogressives.com/bill-clinton-schools-republicans-on-facts-about-obamacare/