Cornyn: President Threatens to Veto His Own Proposal

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) addressed the unraveling of Obamacare on the Senate floor today and called on President Obama to support the rule of law by applying the same rules for all Americans, not waivers and exceptions for some.

The full speech can be seen here and excerpts of his remarks are below:

“The House of Representatives, we know, has drafted a bill that would codify the employer mandate delay that the Administration announced earlier this month. In other words, they want to uphold the rule of law and yet the president is now threatening to veto the very legislation that enacts the policy that he himself announced, which is truly surreal.

“President Obama thinks he can pick and choose which laws to enforce for the sake of his own convenience.

“If this president or any president is allowed to selectively enforce the law based on political expediency, our democracy and adherence to the rule of law will be severely weakened.

“By assuming to be able to unilaterally suspend laws that prove inconvenient, the president is showing disdain for those checks and balances on executive authority as well as his oath where he pledges to faithfully execute the laws of the United States.

“We believe that Obamacare ought to be repealed in its entirety and replaced with commonsense reforms that would actually bring down the costs, increase the quality, and preserve the patient-doctor relationship when it comes to making health care choices.

“We know the promises that ‘if you like the health care coverage that you have, you can keep it’ that the president so famously made -- that's not true. Seven million Americans have lost their health care coverage as Obamacare is being implemented, and many more as employers are incentivized to drop their employer-provided coverage, leaving American families to find their health insurance elsewhere. And we know that the promise that the president made that the average cost of health care insurance for a family of four would go down by $2,400. We know it's gone up by $2,400 since then.

“It appears that the wheels are coming off of Obamacare and the people who will suffer the most are hardworking American families who we are pledged to protect and help.

“So we are simply urging the president to support the rule of law and to make sure that the same rules apply to everyone. Apply to members of Congress and apply to every of one in this great country of ours.”

Senator Cornyn serves on the Finance and Judiciary Committees.  He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee. He served previously as Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and Bexar County District Judge.