As President Barack Obama struggles with the political backlash from a mangled Obamacare rollout, at least one federal lawmaker from New Jersey pounced with a vengeance.
Resident movement conservative U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-5) issued a statement on Friday amid chatter about a possible serious 2014 Democratic challenger.
“Countless constituents have contacted my office regarding the negative effects Obamacare is having on their health care, their businesses, and volunteer service organizations,” Garrett griped. “Despite the president’s repeated promise that ‘if you like your plan, you can keep it,’ more than 800,000 New Jerseyans will no longer be able to keep their plans. Yesterday, I was hopeful that the president would finally agree to delay the implementation of his health care law, but instead he offered a ‘fix’ that is nothing other than a lifeboat with a hole in it. As so many of us feared, Obamacare is just not fixable. The American people need a full and permanent delay of this unworkable law.”
The congressman made his critique while state Sen. Robert Gordon (D-38) seriously contemplates a challenge next year.
Gordon just won re-election in a battleground district targeted by Gov. Chris Christie’s campaign team as a potential pickup in the state Senate.
But while the senator is said to love the idea of being able to run against the Tea Party on the Democratic line in Bergen County with U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), there is real party hand-wringing about the potential deleterious effects of Obamacare.
Garrett wants to waste no time in nailing down the president’s healthcare overhaul as the culprit.
