Both in Congress and as your lieutenant governor, I have fought for tax relief for all Arkansans. Arkansans are taxed too much and government habitually wastes taxpayer dollars. Tax relief and government reform will allow Arkansans to keep more of their hard-earned money and will help us attract businesses and talent.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration hasn't displayed the same concern for taxpayer funds. From big bank bailouts to Solyndra, the federal government has repeatedly failed to protect taxpayer dollars. They've often put the interests of a few corporations above those of the American people. In many cases, they've done so quietly and out of view of voters.
Many in Washington talk about the need to stop the Obama administration from using taxpayer funds to bail out special interests. Sen. Marco Rubio, though, is one of the only people to succeed in actually doing anything about it. The Obama administration wanted to give $2.5 billion of taxpayer funds to insurance companies who lost money under the new, messed-up Obamacare rules. Thanks to Senator Rubio's leadership, the administration's efforts were unsuccessful and taxpayers were protected.
When drafting the Obamacare law, the president and congressional Democrats buried within it something known as a "risk corridor." It certainly wasn't advertised this way, but the risk-corridor provision was included in the law so Democrats could tell insurance companies they would be compensated for losses under the risky new Obamacare system.
In theory, the risk corridors shouldn't cost taxpayers any money because they're designed to primarily use money from profitable insurers to compensate the unprofitable ones. But there was always a risk that Obamacare would cause insurers to lose so much money that there wouldn't be enough winners to cover the losers. In such a case, the Obama administration told the insurance companies not to worry--taxpayer dollars could be used to make up any shortfalls for the first three years of the Obamacare exchanges. Simply put, the administration created a taxpayer bailout for the insurance companies.
Senator Rubio recognized as much, and in November 2013 he introduced legislation in the Senate to stop the Obama administration from using taxpayer dollars to bail out any insurance companies. As a congressman at the time, I was proud to sponsor accompanying legislation in the House aimed at achieving the same goal.
In 2013, we didn't know how big a future Obamacare bailout might be. We only knew that the American taxpayer shouldn't wake up one day with a massive bill on account of a poorly designed law--especially when the majority of the American people opposed the law in the first place.
Today, though, we know the truth about Obamacare: there simply aren't enough winners to cover the losers. UnitedHealth, which insures more than 500,000 people on the exchanges, recently announced that it expects to lose approximately $1 billion on the Obamacare exchanges in 2015 and 2016. In fact, just two years removed from the launch of the insurance exchanges, more than half of the 24 federally subsidized insurance co-ops have failed.
If Barack Obama had his way, taxpayers would have sent $2.5 billion of their hard-earned dollars to bail out insurance companies. Thanks to Senator Rubio's leadership that led to results, taxpayers have instead sent $0.
We need a president who is not only willing to stand up for taxpayers and get results, but able. Of all the candidates currently vying to be our next president, only Marco Rubio has a record of standing up to the Obama administration, protecting taxpayers, and dealing a critical blow to Obamacare in an important first step toward repealing and replacing the president's disastrous law.
Actions speak louder than words--and Marco Rubio's actions show he is by far the candidate best equipped to lead this country.
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Tim Griffin is Arkansas' lieutenant governor.
Editorial on 02/25/2016