Autumn Price
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released a video statement on his official Twitter account on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the continued effort to repeal Obamacare.
Videos by Rare
Today we took the first steps to repeal Obamacare. Here's my statement after today's #healthcare vote. pic.twitter.com/ph3VqcYAtv
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 25, 2017
The Senate voted Tuesday afternoon to move forward with a debate on health care reform. The final vote tally was 51-50. Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote. Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) were the only two Republican senators to join Democrats in voting ‘no’ on the procedural vote.
RELATED: Trump wants to fire Sessions for the wrong reason
Paul says he is keeping his promise to stand for the principles he was elected to represent.
“I was elected on the promise to vote to completely repeal Obamacare,” Paul said.
Paul also said there are two possible outcomes in the health care reform debate: a vote on a clean repeal or a vote for a “big government Senate leadership bill” that has massive insurance bailouts.
Paul said that he would vote ‘no’ on a Senate leadership bill, and will stand strong in consistently supporting a clean repeal.
If every Republican who voted for a clean repeal in 2015 holds steady, it will actually pass, Paul added.
Today we took the first steps to repeal Obamacare. Here's my statement after today's #healthcare vote. pic.twitter.com/ph3VqcYAtv
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 25, 2017
“Because of the work of conservatives, we are going to defeat the Senate leadership bill,” he continued.
“This will be a step in the right direction,” Paul said, warning that some parts of Obamacare may remain in place until enough support for a full repeal is gathered. “There’s still going to be problems in healthcare and I think that we should do what we can now and continue to advocate, but we need more grassroots support for repeal.”
RELATED: Rand Paul explains why the free market would provide Americans with the best health care
“The thing is that we have so many weak-kneed Republicans now and they need to be reminded that Obamacare is a disaster for the country,” he continued.
Paul then encouraged viewers to “wake up” and call their representatives and senators and implore them to support a clean repeal.
“Maybe we can still in the future come back and revisit this and try to repeal more of Obamacare, but my hope is that we are going to repeal at least some of it now and it’s your effort that has helped us get to this point,” Paul concluded.
