◼ During the summer and fall of 2013, Texas senator Ted Cruz repeatedly warned that it would be impossible to repeal Obamacare once Americans began receiving subsidies on January 1, 2014. - John McCormack/Weekly Standard
In the new year, Americans would become “hooked on the subsidies, addicted to the sugar,” Cruz told a Tea Party gathering in his home state on August 19, according to the Texas Tribune. “If we get to January 1, this thing is here forever.” This belief was a main justification for the last-ditch campaign to fund the government if, and only if, Obamacare was defunded.
But on a conference call Wednesday afternoon, a month after Obamacare subsidies began flowing, Cruz told reporters that he no longer believes that January 1 was the deadline to stop Obamacare. "I believe we will repeal Obamacare," he said.
The reason Cruz thinks the law can still be repealed is that he and others had the high-profile fight to defund Obamacare in the first place. "I think we are seeing the fruits of the battle that so many millions of Americans engaged in last fall to stop Obamacare," Cruz said. "I think the direct result of that fight was to elevate the national debate about the harms that Obamacare has caused. And as a consequence, I think the terrain has changed, and I believe we will repeal Obamacare."
