Sasse calls for repeal of Obamacare without plan to replace at local GOP dinner

July 08--NEVADA -- Ben Sasse, the junior Republican Senator from Nebraska, spent most of his keynote speech Friday at the Judge Joseph Story Dinner in Nevada discussing his desire to repeal the Affordable Care Act with or without a replacement plan in place.

The dinner is held annually by the Republican Party of Story County to celebrate Judge Joseph Story, who served on the United States Supreme Court from 1811-45 and is the namesake of Story County.

Sasse may be best known for his part in the "Never Trump" movement that attempted to stop now-President Donald Trump from receiving the party's presidential nomination last year. That has caused many Iowa Republicans to distance themselves from the young Republican who is often called a rising star in the party. Those critics include Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann, who said he didn't care if Sasse liked Trump before suggesting he stay in Nebraska because, according to Kaufmann, Iowans "love Donald Trump." That warning that came last month didn't stop Sasse from coming to Friday's event.

During the event, which was attended by roughly 100 people, Sasse refrained from going after Trump but instead spent much of his 50-minute speech calling for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

"For seven years, the party we're all a part of in this room has said that it was for the repeal and replacement of Obamacare," Sasse said. "The president just ran and won on it. There are 52 Republicans in the Senate, 51 of us have pledged to repeal Obamacare."

Sasse said now that Republicans have the power to do it, he is disappointed at their inability to do so.

"Instead, what has the Republican Party decided to send national signals about over the course of the 48 or 72 hours? Well, if we can't repeal and replace at once, then maybe we should just start working with Democrats to fix Obamacare. So that is the exact opposite of what we ran on," Sasse said.

According to Sasse, Republicans in the Senate should not focus on working across the aisle, but instead should just repeal Obamacare and come up with a plan to replace it later.

"What if we might not be able to succeed at repealing and replacing in the same package deal?" Sasse said. "Maybe we ought to separate these steps. Maybe we ought to go ahead and keep our word on repeal and maybe we ought to pass a law that says the effective date of this is 12 or 24 months in the future and then we ought to move onto the next step of replace and we ought to not leave D.C. until we finish the work."

Other topics Sasse discussed during his speech included American exceptionalism, decentralization of the government and a need for people to be less attached to their political party.

"Most of the really big problems that we face right now really aren't Republican versus Democrat," Sasse said. "None of us should have that much of our identity invested in a political party."

Sasse also went onto answer a question about tax reform, which he said he believed would be difficult. Sasse said even the issue of tax reform really comes back to spending too much on health care.

"No matter what you do on taxes, you're ultimately going to bankrupt the next generation if you don't get health entitlements under control," Sasse said.

Story City resident Ivan Moore attended Friday's event and said he supported the message Sasse delivered.

"I loved everything he said. I'm very much, right down the line, in favor of what he's saying," Moore said.

Moore said his only concern with Sasse is his disagreements with Trump.

"I think he's going to have to adjust that to a certain point," Moore said.

Other prominent speakers of the evening included Gov. Kim Reynolds and Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, who effectively just introduced Reynolds with his short speech.

During her speech, Reynolds moved away from the concerns Sasse had presented and spoke more optimistically about the current state of Iowa and the last election cycle, which gave Iowa Republicans a "partner in the White House.

"As I was listening to Sen. Sasse, what I kept thinking about is because of your efforts and your hard work and because we stayed united as a team, we had tremendous results in the last election," Reynolds said.

Reynolds said that winning the last election was only the beginning.

"We're not done," she said.

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