Jordan on Morning Joe: political, policy, process problems with failed AHCA

Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) joined MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning to discuss why the American Health Care Act failed and the path for Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare moving forward.

During the interview, Rep. Jordan made the following comments about the AHCA:

"There were political problems with this bill, there were policy problems and there were process problems. And typically good process will lead to better policy which I think leads to better politics.

"The lesson here is: don't try to pass a bill that only 17 percent of the country approves of. ... It didn't repeal Obamacare. Even Krauthammer called it Obamacare-lite. Not me - he did. And he was actually for it. It didn't bring down premiums, which became the focus. We were willing to work and try to get there, even though it was a bad bill, if we would at least bring down premiums for middle-class families. And CBO said premiums are gonna continue to rise for the next three-and-a-half years.

"When no one likes the legislation, you have to do it different. And that's what we were saying. It wasn't going to bring down premiums - it had a host of problems. And frankly the key promise we made the American people in 2010, 2014 and the 2016 election was that we would repeal Obamacare. This legislation didn't do that. And that was the fundamental flaw in this entire process. So let's get back to work and let's do what we said we would do.

"They rolled it out after it was hidden away. When they rolled it out they said it's a binary choice - take it or leave it. Normally when you have hearings on a piece of legislation that impacts this much of our overall economy, you would bring in some witnesses and hear from some witnesses about what's going to happen if this legislation actually becomes law. We had none of that. We went straight to mark-up. No amendments could be offered in the Energy and Commerce Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, the Budget Committee. And finally, they took a manager's amendment at the last hour to try to get people to vote for it. That is a problem.

"The mistake on this past bill was we didn't do what the American people sent us here to do. 'Cause it wasn't full repeal. So when it comes to tax reform, when it comes to border security, when it comes to the other big issues we've talked about accomplishing and that we promised the voters we would, let's do what we said. If we do that I think we will be fine. If we don't I think we may have the same problems we had on this last bill unfortunately."

VIDEO of Rep. Jordan's interview: https://youtu.be/FbRbjxR5fes

Read this original document at: http://jordan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398111