Fact check: Biden’s midterms pitch includes misleading claims about Obamacare
The vice president told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Democrats’ first priority on day one of the White House race is to help the president with Obamacare.
CNN asked Biden if he would support Obamacare — and he didn’t. A number of his statements were outright false.
“In order to reform health care for the American people, we have got to bring back the American dream,” Biden said.
But that’s not true.
The Affordable Care Act passed Congress with more support from Democrats than Republicans — 57 percent to 39 percent — in its final days. Yet polls show that the majority of voters, including a majority of Democrats and independents, believe the law costs too much and doesn’t do what it promises.
“It’s hard to blame the Democrats for not getting behind it on day one,” said Bill Press, a senior vice president at Americans for Prosperity, a political group that supports the health care law.
Biden went on to say that health care is “an issue that is very personal” for him.
“I have a daughter with diabetes, and I’m glad I was able to sign this piece of legislation, but I get it that the Democrats weren’t for it and they couldn’t get it,” he said. “They haven’t made any other promises that have been very clear and they have to make them because it’s not working for them.”
Biden’s comments aren’t the first time the vice president has said Obamacare is not working. In the past two weeks he has said the law is not “working for the American people.”
Last week, the vice president said health care had “become a kind of a black hole that we’re trying to fill in the absence of any major reforms.”
“People die because they can’t find coverage,” he
