Republican Congressman Jim Jordan said Sunday his party should not be viewed as “the bad guy” because it wants fair implementation of the new health care law.
“We were elected to stand for certain principles,” Mr. Jordan, of Ohio, told Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. “The vast majority of people know this law doesn’t work, the president knows this law doesn’t work.”
SEE RELATED:
Yet polls show the GOP suffering, politically, for its decision to use Obamacare as leverage in the spending fight that led to the government shutdown. Negative views of the party are soaring, according to polls, while perceptions of the health care law have improved despite widespread problems with the rollout of online insurance markets tied to the reforms.
House Republicans said it was unfair for President Obama to put off a provision that requires large companies to provide health coverage or pay fines, without doing the same for the individual mandate requiring most Americans to acquire health insurance.
“All we’ve asked for is, ‘Delay it,’” Mr. Jordan said.
The congressman was less direct in saying whether House Republicans would be willing to let the nation’s borrowing authority lapse on Thursday, the date Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has pinpointed as the deadline for raising the debt limit so the nation does not risk default.
“You should be asking Harry Reid this and Barack Obama this,” Mr. Jordan.
Mr. Wallace, the host, said he would if they were on the show.
Mr. Jordan repeatedly said the country is spending more money than it has, and at the very least Republicans will not budge on established spending cuts known as the sequester.
“The sequester has been one of the good things that happened,” he said.
