Lindsey Graham Promises to Repeal Obamacare if Trump and Republicans Win

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham made a familiar pledge this week when he told a crowd in South Carolina that if President Donald Trump and Republicans regain unified control of the government in 2020, they will repeal Obamacare.

During South Carolina radio’s 94.5 The Answer’s “2nd Annual Washington Night” Q&A forum this week, Graham was asked, “Many feel the house went democratic because of Obamacare was not repealed, what can we tell our constituents that Republicans are going to do about this issue?”

“Great question, number one, we’ve got to remind people that we’re not for Obamacare,” Graham said, then declared “There were five exchanges created under Obamacare in South Carolina, we’re down to one.”

There has only ever actually been one Obamacare exchange in South Carolina, but there was a reduction of insurers in Obamacare from five down to one.

“So we were one vote short in the Senate, we need 18 seats in the House to take the House back,” Graham told the crowd, adding “If they impeach Trump, I think we’re going to get those seats back, and I hope they don’t for the sake of the country, but one of those seats is in the first congressional district of South Carolina. And we’re going to take that seat back.”

Graham also provided an update on Trump’s thinking on health care, which did not include the “major announcement” Trump promised earlier this summer.

“So here’s what the president told me a couple of days ago,” Graham said, “That we’re going to try to lower prescription drug costs, we just passed four bills out of my committee a bunch of committees have acted if your generic drug company we’re going to let you get into the business sooner, we’re going to stop patent abuse we’re going to do a lot of things with transparency and pricing.”

In June, Trump promised a “big announcement in two weeks” on healthcare, but the policies Graham discussed with Trump are ones that have already been announced when Trump made that promise.

While repealing Obamacare polls poorly with the overall electorate, it’s still a very popular idea with Republican voters, 72 percent of whom supported repeal in a recent poll. But as Graham noted, Republicans also watch as the GOP-controlled Congress failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Watch the clip above via 94.5 The Answer.