Update- Cross reaffirms opposition to Obamacare in response
PLAINFIELD - House MInority Leader Tom Cross (R-Plainfield) made a strong statement against Obamacare Thursday afternoon, despite a recent radio interview in which he defended Republican House members that voted to move Cook County ahead two years into Obamacare for 250,000 childless adults:
“We have made tremendous efforts this year in Illinois to reduce our state run healthcare program, because we could no longer afford to provide the services that were once promised. Today’s Supreme Court decision affirms a federal law that has the potential to pile billions of dollars of additional expenses into our state budget that we cannot afford. We are encouraging Congress to repeal Obamacare at the federal level as soon as possible, and provide Illinois the ability to administer an efficient Medicaid program.”
Illinois Policy Institute's Jonathan Ingram reacted to Cross' statement about the vote take on HB 5007 with a bit of shock:
Unbelievably, Republican Leader Tom Cross is bemoaning the Supreme Court's decision to uphold most of ObamaCare, just weeks after taking to the airwaves to defend the decision to implement key provisions of the law nearly two years early in Cook County. A fifth of his caucus, including several members of Republican leadership, voted to implement ObamaCare's massive expansion of Medicaid ahead of schedule, just weeks before the Supreme Court announced that states can opt out of that expansion.
Leader Cross responded late Thursday afternoon through his spokesperson Sara Wojciki:
Our position on healthcare exchanges has always been that we hold off until the Court’s decision, we are still interpreting the court’s ruling today to see if states will have the option to opt out of Obamacare. We have always been for the repeal of Obamacare—we have not waivered.
