MANCHESTER, N.H.—Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal says that in spite of the Supreme Court’s ruling that Obamacare subsidies are constitutional, the Affordable Care Act still needs to be replaced.
“You may have seen [the] news that the Supreme Court has ruled that one part of this law is not unconstitutional,” said Jindal during a speech yesterday at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. “Well, yippy. This is now success? So, if the Congress were to double our taxes tomorrow, and the Supreme Court said that wasn’t unconstitutional, that would be success?”
The Louisiana Republican said that Obamacare “decreases our freedom,” forces consumers to buy a product they may not want or need, increases premiums, and forces people into a broken Medicare system.
He said conservatives must explain how they would replace Obamacare.
“The court spoke today, but I think the people of America still need to speak,” Jindal said.
Jindal said there is an “unprecedented assault on our freedoms” coming from Washington, D.C.
One of these freedoms, he said, is religious liberty.
“The United States of America did not create religious liberty,” Jindal said. “Religious liberty created the United States of America.”
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal mingles with attendees at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. (Photo: Kate Scanlon/The Daily Signal)
Jindal, a first generation American, said that his parents came to America looking for freedom and prosperity.
“My parents came halfway across the world in search of the American dream,” Jindal said. “To this day it still gives me goosebumps to think of it.”
His parents came to America from India without ever even seeing a picture of their new home in Louisiana. They had never even flown on an airplane before.
“They couldn’t even go online and google what Baton Rouge was like,” Jindal said.
He said he fears that dream is slipping away.
“Today, President Obama and his apprentice-in-chief Hillary Clinton are at war trying to turn the American dream into the European nightmare,” Jindal said.
Jindal called Obama a “one-term senator who needed on the job training.”
Jindal also criticized one of his many Republican rivals, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
“You’ll hear some, and Jeb Bush has said this most recently, that we’ve got to be willing to lose the primary in order to win the general,” Jindal said. “I couldn’t disagree with that more. I’m going to translate for you what he is saying: He is basically saying that—and you hear other Republicans say this all the time—that we have got to make the left like us. We’ve got to make the media like us. We’ve got to hide who we are and what we believe.”
“We’ve tried that,” he continued. “And when we’ve done that we’ve lost and we deserved to lose. I’ve got a novel idea: Why don’t we run in an election where we actually embrace our ideas and our principles? Why don’t we tell the American people what we stand for?”
Jindal vowed to fight for the unborn, defeat ISIS and oppose Common Core.
He also expressed support for term limits, a balanced budget amendment and legislation requiring the approval of a supermajority in Congress to raise taxes.
Jindal’s visit to the Granite State was his first campaign stop since he launched his presidential campaign Wednesday in Louisiana.
