GOP Arkansas Senate candidate Rep. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) reacted to Sen. Mark Pryor's (D., Ark.) telling a local media outlet he would vote for Obamacare again Monday on Fox News.
Cotton told host Neil Cavuto despite some Arkansans seeing up to triple digit increases in their premiums and the loss of insurance or access to their doctors, Sen. Pryor's support for Obamacare shows he "still doesn't get it."
Cavuto countered with criticism emanating from Pryor's camp that Cotton's support for the Ryan budget will hurt Arkansans far more than Obamacare.
"Senator Pryor has also endorsed in the past increasing the eligibility age for Medicare and Social Security. More importantly, Obamacare raided Medicare $700 billion to pay for Obamacare. What we propose to do in the House is to modernize and reform Medicare so it's available, not just for my generation but for my parents' generation," Cotton said.
Cotton also emphasized the Medicare eligibility age changes would not affect anyone close to retirement.
Cavuto then asked the GOP representative if he would support any alternative to Obamacare that did not include tort reform, which the Fox News host noted has so far proved to be a nonstarter with Democrats.
Cotton replied the House has acted on a number of proposals to replace Obamacare with policies that empower patients.
"There are a lot of reforms, [what] they truly do have in common is trying to empower patients, so they can have the choice between insurance plans or doctors or other kind of providers, not bureaucrats in Washington in control. So in the long term, we have to repeal Obamacare entirely, but ultimately we need to replace it with reforms that trust patients and doctors. Not bureaucrats in Washington."