Karl Rove Takes Aim at 'ObamaCare'

It was standing room only at the Yale Law School Tuesday night as Karl Rove, former chief political adviser to President George W. Bush, addressed hundreds during a Yale Political Union debate.

His speech titled, "Resolved: Repeal ObamaCare" (in reference to the health care act signed into law March 23), drew a crowd that filled the auditorium to a maximum capacity of 515, the Yale Daily News reported.

Law School Associate Dean Mike Thompson says between 200 and 300 people had to be turned away from the event instead of being moved to overflow rooms because Rove would not allow audio or visual recordings, according to the paper.

The event prompted a mix of hisses and applause throughout the evening, the New Haven Register reported.

“The president said it would not add a dime to the deficit,” Rove said of the new health care plan. “And he’s right. We’re going to add trillions of dimes to the deficit.”

The bill was passed to provide medical coverage to 46 million uninsured Americans, but as the paper reports, Rove said 9.7 million are legal and illegal immigrants, and, “We shouldn’t pick up the cost for people who aren’t U.S. citizens.”

When quoting statistics on the number of Americans who were uninsured before the health care law passed, Rove mentioned that the numbers could be found online - and thanked former Vice President Al Gore for inventing the World Wide Web. As the Yale Daily News reports, Rove also had some criticism for Gore. “The Internet was way better than that other thing he came up with,” he said. “Global warming.”

Rove gave a few suggestions on how to improve health care. He said policies should be able to cross state lines, just as auto insurance does. He also suggested allowing small businesses to join together to get discounts similar to those given to large companies, and starting risk pools for those finding it difficult to get insurance.

Instead of the health care act, officially known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Rove said the United States government "should have solved [the health care problem] in a bipartisan way” that also makes strides toward medical liability reform — an issue he said was virtually unaddressed by the new law.

When the House of Representatives passed the PPACA on March 21 with a vote of 219-212, all 178 Republicans voted against it.
 

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