After voting more than a dozen times to repeal the Affordable Care Act and leading Senate Republican efforts to dismantle it, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Monday that the “good news” is that people can sign up for President Barack Obama’s signature health care law if they’ve lost their jobs and need health insurance amid the coronavirus pandemic.“The good news is that if you lose your employer-provided coverage, which covers about a 180 million Americans, that is a significant life event, which makes you then eligible to sign up for the Affordable Care Act,” Cornyn said in a PBS Austin interview. “As you know, it has a sliding scale of subsidies up to 400% of poverty. So that’s an option for people.”
Huffington Post points out that Cornyn urges people to sign up for the ACA at the 6 minute mark in this video:
Huffington Post also points out the several times Cornyn has both voted to repeal the ACA and as Senate Majority Whip to get the votes to vote for repealing the ACA. Steve Benen at MSNBC nails it:
In 2017, as the Republican effort to destroy the nation's existing health care system reached its peak, there were a variety of relevant players, but Politico labeled Cornyn “Obamacare repeal's top salesman.”
And yet, here we are, watching the GOP senator — did I mention that Cornyn is up for re-election this year? — direct his constituents to the Affordable Care Act as a worthwhile lifeline for families in need of health security.
The Texas Republican's message, in effect, was, “The good news is, I failed in my efforts to tear down the ACA, so people can still take advantage of the law I fought to destroy.”
Yeah, fuck him. He needs to go. Our side still has a runoff election on July 14th to determine who will take on Cornyn. Luckily, there’s more time to vote early:
