Sen. John Cornyn, once called “Obamacare repeal’s top salesman,” dispensed some surprising advice to constituents this week.
During a TV interview, the Texas Republican encouraged Americans who have lost health care coverage during the pandemic to sign up for the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, a law he’s long fought to dismantle.
“The good news is that if you lose your employer-provided coverage, which covers about 180 million Americans, then that is a significant life event, which makes you then eligible to sign up for the Affordable Care Act — and as you know, it has a sliding scale of subsidies up to 400 percent of poverty,” Cornyn told PBS Austin.
In a press statement, the Texas Democratic Party pointed out that Cornyn has voted 20 times to block, repeal or defund the ACA. If the senator is sincere in telling people to sign up for the program, they add, he should come out in opposition to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to overturn the law.
“Cornyn can’t have it both ways,” said Abhi Rahman, spokesman for the Texas Dems. “The question now becomes, where does Cornyn stand on the Paxton lawsuit to repeal Affordable Care for Texans who have recently lost their job?”
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This article appears in May 6-19, 2020.
