Rick Berg Won’t Say Whether Or Not He Opposes Obamacare Exchanges

Tweet

Written By:
Rob Port

Jul 23, 2012
11:54pm

Rick Berg wants to repeal the Obamacare law. One of the first votes Berg made upon being elected to Congress after beating Earl Pomeroy in an election that was defined by Obamacare was to repeal the law. He has voted for every repeal offered in Congress since.

So when asked about a part of the law like the exchanges, which are government markets for health insurance controlled by the feds whether the states set them up or not, you’d expect Berg to take a clear position. After all, government control of health insurance and health care is what’s driving most of the opposition to Obamacare. And government-managed, government-controlled markets aren’t supposed to be something conservatives support.

You’d especially expect Berg to take a clear position in the context of his opponent offering myriad of contradictions on the issue. Unfortunately, that’s not what we get from Berg:

Berg’s campaign spokesman Chris Van Guilder did not specify the congressman’s position on the health care exchanges, instead he reiterated Berg’s opposition to the law in its entirety.

“President Obama’s massive government takeover of health care that he forced on the American people is not the right approach,” Van Guilder said. “Rick Berg supports the full repeal of Obamacare and then seeking step-by-step reforms to decrease costs, increase access, and ensure health care decisions belong to patients and their doctors – not government bureaucrats and government-run bureaucracies.”

You’ve got to be kidding me.

One of Berg’s biggest problems as a candidate is that he comes off as more calculating than authentic. It is easy to perceive him as someone not with convictions but ambition, and a desire to avoid saying or doing things that might not be politically convenient.

Incidents like this one don’t help diminish that perception.

Heitkamp is very much the underdog in this race, but Berg isn’t doing a lot to help himself out.