Top House Republican: GOP health plan is 'ObamaCare gone,' not 'ObamaCare Lite'
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The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee told Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier" Monday that Republicans' long-awaited plan to replace ObamaCare is "clearly ObamaCare gone and new freedom."
"We repeal all those taxes, those mandates, those subsidies," Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, told host Bret Baier. "There’s nothing left there."
HOUSE GOP RELEASES LONG-AWAITED REPLACEMENT BILL
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Brady's "ObamaCare gone" comment was a reference to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who said Monday that the House GOP plan "looks like ObamaCare Lite" and was "going to have to change."
PAUL: I DIDN'T SIGN UP TO VOTE FOR 'OBAMACARE LITE'
"I didn't sign on to vote for a new government program," Paul told Fox News last week.
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Greg Walden, R-Ore., the chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, told "Special Report" that the GOP plan amounted to "the biggest entitlement reform, probably in at least the last 20 years, certainly since the Clinton days when they reformed welfare."
"What we want to do is restore power to the states, put Medicaid on a budget, and get back to where you have a doctor-patient relationship in healthcare and in the individual insurance market, which as you know … is collapsing all around us," Walden said.
Both congressmen were optimistic that the bill would pass, despite their narrow margin for error in the Senate.
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"The replacement[s] are long-standing Republican policies of giving control back to the states and to the individuals as well," Brady said. "We are making sure this is fiscally responsible as well, so I see all the elements are there."