ICYMI: Cuccinelli & Ryan Discuss ObamaCare's Impact On Virginia

Press Release

Late yesterday afternoon, Ken Cuccinelli held a press conference call with House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to discuss the latest developments regarding ObamaCare and its importance in the race for Virginia's Governor. During the call, Congressman Ryan made it clear that Terry McAuliffe's plans to use Medicaid expansion to pay for his many policy proposals is not feasible for Virginia. Ryan also joined Cuccinelli in calling for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's resignation, saying Sebelius should be "held responsible" for the failed rollout of ObamaCare after leading Congress to believe it is was ready for prime time.

RYAN: "This is like budget pixie dust -- claiming that this money is all of a sudden going to come raining in from Washington and it's going to pay for all of the things you want to do in state government, is just not so. It's misleading. The first thing to go in budgeting, whether it's Republicans or Democrats who are running the Congress or in the White House, are 90 percent matching rates. The notion that the federal government is going to keep matching Medicaid spending at this level is a notion that is just a faulty premise. It's going to get cut. I've been telling Governors across the country this. I've told my own Governor in Wisconsin. There is no way you should be able to bank on such exorbitant matching rates from the federal government for Medicaid expansion. So to suggest that this is all of a sudden going to pay for all of the promises you're making, it's basically gambling with other people's money that isn't going to arrive. So I see it as one big empty promise."

CUCCINELLI: "When you've already got something like ObamaCare that is such an abject failure. I mean, you look at the Web sites, they're failing. But even worse, as I've told people, is when you actually get through and find out [the] costs. And the limitation of choices. This is a failure. Why would we expand failure by expanding Medicaid under ObamaCare? It's a major difference between me and Terry McAuliffe. Not only did I fight it when it first was signed by the President, because it was unconstitutional, but it's also rather obviously bad policy. The way it's impacting families and businesses. And the unfolding of this is so bad, yesterday I called on the President to fire Kathleen Sebelius. And I'm hoping that Congress can legally pass a one-year delay of the individual mandate like the President did illegally for the employer mandate. I've been hearing from families who have been pretty well shocked about the price hikes, and business owners on the ground all over Virginia who are freezing hiring or they're moving people to part time work, including our state government."

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