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PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Saturday called congressional Republican leaders "fearful" of acting to fully repeal President Barack Obama's health care law.
Jindal, a second-term Republican governor weighing a 2016 presidential candidacy, said the GOP had failed to act on their signature issue in the 2014 midterm elections. Republicans overtook Democrats in the Senate and broadened their majority in the House.
"It's leadership and other members who, I think, are fearful of being criticized for putting anything out there that could be attacked. If not, why wouldn't we have had a vote by now?" he told reporters at the anti-tax Club for Growth's winter meeting. "I would hope, though, that we're honest enough to say, we campaigned on getting rid of Obamacare."
Jindal is one of six Republican presidential prospects speaking to the roughly 200 fiscal conservatives attending the meeting that ends Saturday. The others were former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
The Club for Growth is influential in Republican campaigns. It conducts thorough reviews of candidates' records on spending, taxes and budgets, and it makes recommendations to its members. Its political action committee has also emerged as a factor in recent campaigns, spending money on behalf of and against Republican candidates.
The group has never backed a candidate for president, but it has not ruled out an endorsement in the 2016 race.
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