One day after announcing his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has revealed his plans to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act — a law he has spent much of his time in Congress trying to repeal.
“We will presumably go on the exchange and sign up for health care and we’re in the process of transitioning over to do that,” Cruz told The Des Moines Register on Tuesday. The decision comes following his wife, Heidi Nelson Cruz’s announcement that she will step down from her job at Goldman Sachs to join the Cruz 2016 campaign full-time.
As the Register reports, because of an amendment sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), members of Congress must use the federal exchanges to obtain their health insurance, even though the government pays the majority of their premiums.
“Well, it is written in the law that members will be on the exchanges without subsidies just like millions of Americans so that’s — I think the same rules should apply to all of us,” Cruz added. “Members of Congress should not be exempt.”
But that doesn’t mean he has let up on his crusade to see the law repealed. “I believe in 2017 a new president, a Republican president will sign legislation repealing every word of it,” Cruz said. “There are a fair number of Republicans in Washington and elsewhere who have quietly and privatively given up on that fight and I have not.”
CNN first reported on Monday that Heidi Cruz would lose her employer-based health insurance during his unpaid leave from Goldman Sachs. In another interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Tuesday, Cruz refused to acknowledge the irony of the situation and even used it as a chance to attack President Barack Obama.
“I believe we should follow the text of every law, even [a] law I disagree with,” the senator said. “It’s one of the real differences — if you look at President Obama and the lawlessness, if he disagrees with a law he simply refuses to follow it or claims the authority to unilaterally change.”
Watch Bash’s interview with Cruz below, via CNN:
[Photo via AP]
— —
>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
