Another lawmaker has joined a growing number of Democrats putting pressure on the president to make good on his statements to the American public when he said they could keep their healthcare plans when Obamacare was launched.
Rep. Kurt Schrader on Tuesday blasted President Barack Obama for "grossly misleading" Americans for his broken promises on his signature healthcare act and for the ongoing problems with the rollout.
Appearing on KGW-TV's "
Straight Talk," the Oregon Democrat said the president's broken vow to insured Americans will not be quickly forgotten, though the "horrendous problems" of the Obamacare rollout probably will be.
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"I think next year at election time, people are going to want to know, was I able to sign up?" he said. "And what is the shape of the benefit package I'm going to get and how much is it going to cost me, at the end of the day?"
But, the Democrat continued, the sign-up problems will be a thing of the past once the HealthCare.gov site gets rolling smoothly.
"I think ... the sign-up period and the horrendous problems that are going on right now will be way in the past."
Former President Bill Clinton also criticized the president Tuesday, saying "the president should honor the commitment that the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got," even if it means altering the Affordable Care Act law.
And Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina wants an investigation into the launch of HealthCare.gov by the Government Accountability Office and the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General.
The first-term Democrat said she expects "transparency and accountability" from the Obama administration on the botched launch.
The critical words from the president's own party members come days after Obama apologized to those whose policies got canceled as a result of his Affordable Care Act.
Schrader said the the president promised what he could not deliver.
"I think the president was grossly misleading to the American public," he said. "I know right away as a veterinarian, I have my own business, that my policies got canceled even before the Affordable Care Act.
"I know that I would change policies on a regular basis, trying to find the best deal for myself and my employees. But a lot of Americans, a lot of Oregonians, have stayed with the same policy for a number of years and are shocked that their policy got canceled."
He said Obama was simply "not being honest" with policyholders who had held onto their plans for years and that he "is causing added stress and added strife as we go through a really difficult time with healthcare."
Schrader also accused White House press secretary Jay Carney of "double talk" for also misleading on Obamacare.
On Tuesday, Schrader's tirade triggered an equally harsh critique by the National Republican Congressional Committee, which accused him of being a hypocrite since he issued the same incorrect claims on his website after the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010,
OregonLive.com reported.
In a statement, spokeswoman Alleigh Marre accused Schrader of "blatantly misleading voters in the face of changing political winds and the plan's botched rollout."
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