Even though Mr. Ryan says he believes that freedom is “the ability to buy what you want to fit what
you need,” he doesn’t want the government to do anything to help people experience that freedom.
“ ‘Necessitous men are not free men.’ ”
Among the rights he laid out were to a job and an education, to earn enough to buy
the necessities, to live in a “decent home,” and to medical care and good health.
The Affordable Care Act’s extension of health care coverage, coupled with the individual
mandate to buy it, has brought the uninsured rate to an all-time low.
He said that he was “calling on this Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare” and demanding “reforms
that expand choice, increase access, lower costs and, at the same time, provide better health care.”
That’s a lot to promise, and Republicans have thus far been unable to get on the same
page about how to repeal the Affordable Care Act and what should take its place.
But Mr. Ryan is sure they will come up with something
because they know, as he said in a recent tweet, “Freedom is the ability to buy what you want to fit what you need.”
He went on to argue that Obamacare abridges this freedom by telling you what to buy.
