Johnson: we will repeal the Affordable Care Act and send manufacturing jobs back to China

The Speaker of the House du jour has not yet fully learned the art of lying about the Republican policy agenda during election campaigns, hence some Kinsleyian gaffes:

As you probably know, we’re beginning the final week of a dead-even presidential contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, with Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes being the most desperately sought prize by both campaigns. Team Trump is already having a difficult week in the Keystone State thanks to a crude racist joke about Puerto Rico that one of Trump’s comedian buddies told at his wild Madison Square Garden rally, which is not going over well among the pivotal bloc of Puerto Rican voters in northeastern Pennsylvania. Now, Harris has gotten a helping hand in the same vicinity from none other than House Speaker Mike Johnson, as NBC News reports:

House Speaker Mike Johnson took a dig at Obamacare during an event in Pennsylvania on Monday, telling a crowd there will be “massive” health care changes in America if Donald Trump wins the election.

“Health care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda. When I say we’re going to have a very aggressive first 100 days agenda, we got a lot of things still on the table,” Johnson, R-La., said in Bethlehem while campaigning for GOP House candidate Ryan Mackenzie, according to video footage obtained by NBC News.

“No Obamacare?” one attendee asked Johnson, referring to the law Democrats passed in 2010, also known as the Affordable Care Act.

“No Obamacare,” Johnson responded, rolling his eyes. “The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.”

And the senator who prevented a House repeal bill from passing last time is now literally dead. But I’m sure concepts of a plan would be great comfort to the tens of millions of people being threatened with losing their health insurance and tens millions of more people who will have the insurance made worse.

Johnson also accidentally told the truth about his position on the CHIPS Act:

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Republicans “probably will” try to repeal legislation that spurred U.S. production of semiconductor chips, a statement he quickly tried to back away from, saying he would like to instead “streamline” it.

Johnson made the initial comment Friday while campaigning for a vulnerable New York GOP congressman in a district that is anticipating a large new Micron semiconductor manufacturing plant.

A reporter asked Johnson whether he would try to repeal the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had disparaged last week. “I expect that we probably will, but we haven’t developed that part of the agenda yet,” Johnson replied.

But at least if you’re very rich you’ll get another nice reduction in your tax liability.