Van Hollen on MSNBC: We Should Focus on Jobs and the Economy

Washington, DC – Today Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, appeared on MSNBC with Tamron Hall to talk about the Affordable Care Act and the state of the American economy. Below are highlights of his interview, and the full video is available here:

“You have confidence in Jeff Zients – he’s the czar, now, for the Healthcare Exchange – he’s the guy who was brought in, he has broad experience.  So, we’ve got to get this thing working. Obviously it has gotten off to a very, very bumpy start. Very important that they get it fixed, up and running so that people can access these health care plans and find out that, in fact, a lot of these plans are much more affordable than the plans they have today.”

“Well, Tamron, the polls show overwhelmingly that the American people want to fix problems with Affordable Care Act as they come up. They don’t want to get rid of it. In other words, they want to fix it, not nix it.”

“So, the American people understand that the status quo before the Affordable Care Act was unacceptable. They want to make the Affordable Care Act work. We want to work with people who want to fix it, but it’s hard to work with people who are trying to actually just kill it and undermine the entire effort.”

“Our Republican colleagues want only to talk about Affordable Care Act. We should be working right now on the budget negotiations and focus on jobs and the economy. That means looking, I believe, at additional investment in our national infrastructure. It means replacing these very deep and immediate sequester cuts with the smarter approach, because those cuts are having a drag on the economy. That’s according to the Congressional Budget Office. And, we have to deal with the issue of unemployment compensation. That expires at the end of this year. That’s millions of Americans who are still looking for work, can’t find it, need to make sure they put food on the table for their families.”