Mike Castle tries to be all things to all people. His carefully worded statement about health care reform repeal fooled the News Journal editorial board into praising his sensible stance.
“While this president is in office, repealing this full law is not realistic and not the best use of our efforts,” Castle said in a statement.
Many of us in the blogosphere read this statement to mean that he would be open to repeal if a Republican was president. In appearance in front of a group of Republicans, he assured them that he is open to repeal.
“You’re not going to be able to repeal this legislation,” says Castle. “Now maybe we could if there’s an election for a new president and you have a couple of elections for Congress. I’d be willing to consider it.”
Dave Weigel followed up with Chris Shirley, the leader of the Delaware Tea Party. Shirley doesn’t seem convinced about Castle’s commitment to the cause of repeal:
“His take on it,” said Shirey, “from the way he explained it to us, is that trying to repeal the bill is a waste of effort — it’s a waste of time. Our thought is, how do you know unless you try? What he said in this video … I think that’s what he’s trying to put out there, what he’s been saying to us, that it’s a wasted effort. We feel he should be more firm on that.”
Shirey said that tea party activists were annoyed with Castle for not coming around on the issue. “We’re not ready to hang him out to dry,” she said, “but he has irritated some of us.”
So, Castle loves having uninsured people? I wonder which part of the bill he wants to repeal first – pre-existing condition exemptions for children? Don’t worry though, Castle supports allowing insurance companies to sell crappy insurance over state lines.