By Alice Chao
WASHINGTON — "How about, we defund the whole damn thing?!" Rep. Rand Paul, R-Ky., rhetorically asked a major rally in the nation's capital aimed at putting the brakes on Obamacare.
He was just one of an all-star gathering of conservatives speaking Tuesday at the "Exempt America from Obamacare Rally" from the West Lawn of the Capitol, as speaker after speaker blasted the health-care law.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, claimed, "This thing ain't working" and asked, "How about an exemption for hard working Americans?!"
"We are fighting to preserve liberty," the tea-party favorite insisted.
Referring to the president's unilateral decision to delay the employer mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, concluded, "If the president is not going to follow the law, we should defund it."
"We can stop this law!" Lee assured the crowd, adding, “Obamacare is not controversial — it is universally despised (outside Washington).”
Jeff Frazee, the Executive Director of Young Americans for Liberty, gave a blunt assessment, exclaiming, “It is my generation that is getting screwed the most with Obamacare!"
Former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain asserted, "America is divided not between haves and have nots, but between the working class and the political class. We are the working class!"
The president and co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, Jenny Beth Martin, told WND she organized the event because Obamacare "is not ready for Big Business, Big Labor or Big Government - which all got exemptions from Obamacare."
"If Obamacare is not ready for them, it's not ready for the American people," she said.
Martin urged: "Do what's fair for all Americans: Exempt America from Obamacare now."
(See Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., speak at the rally in the video below:)
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., one of the congressional leaders pushing to defund the health care law, told WND he was speaking at the rally because, “Obamacare is not ready, and the way it is being implemented is not fair," he said. "By choosing to delay the employer mandate, President Obama demonstrated he knows the law is unworkable."
Meadows observed, what's good for the goose should be good for the gander.
"If big businesses get a break, hardworking individuals and families deserve the same relief," he said. "The American people do not want to hand over their health care decisions to Washington bureaucrats. It is time for their voices to be heard.”
(See Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speak at the rally in the video below:)
Many lawmakers and Americans found it unfair when, as WND reported, the Department of Health and Human Services issued businesses more than 1,200 waivers from parts of Obamacare, while ordinary citizens and most businesses were left to face the full brunt of the law.
Last month, Meadows collected about 80 signatures from colleagues on a letter he sent to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., asking to “defund the implementation and enforcement of ObamaCare in any relevant appropriations bill brought to the House floor in the 113th Congress.”
When Obama decided in July to delay implmentation of the employer mandate until 2015, Meadows told WND: "President Obama demonstrated he knows the law is unworkable. If big businesses get a break, hardworking individuals and families deserve the same relief.”
“Obamacare is not only killing jobs; it will ultimately destroy healthy, happy lives. The American people deserve much better than this destructive government healthcare overhaul," Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, told WND.
Gohmert called it an "honor" to be asked to speak and stand with the majority of Americans who support repeal of Obamacare.
"If people do not exercise their Freedom of Speech to expose the threat to American lives ObamaCare presents, then they will have a shorter life in which to utilize their rights, while a big brother government holds records of their most sensitive, private information."
The Texan called combining the IRS and a government healthcare bureaucracy something "not even Orwell would have envisioned."
WND recently documented 52 significant problems with Obamcare, including:
- No guarantee Americans will keep their doctors
- Americans may lose their health plans
- Worsening health care
- Higher premiums
- Higher taxes
- Budget deficit increase
- Hiring freezes
- Slashed workers’ hours
- Killing existing jobs
- Killing new jobs
- Jobs already killed
- 1,200 business waivers
- Higher Medicare costs
- Seniors may lose Medicare
- Most Americans don’t want it.