GOP presidential candidate Bobby Jindal is happy his fellow candidate, Scott Walker, has offered a plan to replace Obamacare, but he said Thursday that the plan has too many flaws.
"He creates a new entitlement program and we can't afford the ones we have got," Jindal, who is the governor of Louisiana, told
Fox News' "America's Newsroom" host Bill Hemmer, and, in addition, it offers potential subsidies for "every American from cradle to grave."
Conservatives "have to be for limited government, shrinking government," Jindal said, calling the Wisconsin governor's plan "Obamacare lite," and saying it does not offer a conservative approach to healthcare.
Story continues below video.
Meanwhile, Jindal said, "my plan does not raise taxes, and it repeals Obamacare. It reduces costs and helps those who are vulnerable."
He warned that as conservatives, "let's not fall into the trap that President [Barack] Obama has laid out for us," because government dependence and entitlement programs are "fundamental flaws with Obamacare."
On Tuesday,
Walker said during a speech in Minnesota that he would send legislation to Congress on his first day as president "that will once and for all repeal Obamacare entirely and replace it in a way that puts patients and their families back in charge of their healthcare decisions."
Walker said his proposal "gives them a way to get an affordable healthcare plan," by allowing for age-based refundable tax credits for people who aren't eligible for employer-provided insurance or Medicare. The credits would range from $900 per year for a person under 17 to $3,000 for a person above 50.
Obamacare provides tax credits based on income, with hopes of helping lower-income recipients get insurance, an approach that Republicans call an entitlement program.
Jindal's plan, which he unveiled in April 2014, proposes a $100 billion federal cash infusion over a decade for state-based high-risk pools, and replaces the tax exclusion on employer-provided insurance with a standard deduction. In addition, Jindal has spoken favorably about the idea of refundable tax credits.
Jindal also Thursday called out Hillary Clinton and other Democrats for their response to Planned Parenthood and a series of undercover videos that alleged financial transactions between the organization and companies buying aborted fetuses.
The discussion came up when Hemmer asked Jindal if he, unlike GOP front-runner Donald Trump, finds the term "anchor babies" offensive when describing the children who are born in the United States to undocumented immigrants.
"What I find offensive is Hillary Clinton, the left, when you look at those Planned Parenthood videos they refuse to call them babies; they call them fetal tissue and specimens," said Jindal, a staunch pro-life supporter. "Planned Parenthood is protesting against my decision to cancel the Medicaid contract to make sure they are not getting tax dollars in Louisiana.
"What's offensive is the left refuses to say babies ... I think folks today are too easily offended. They are too politically correct."
The real issue, he said, when it comes to "anchor babies," is the need to secure the nation's borders and stop illegal immigration.
Jindal also told Hemmer to let voters decide if Trump's record is conservative or not. As for himself, he said he is the only candidate in the GOP field uniquely positioned because he actually "cut the size of government."
Further, Jindal said that he has the record that is needed to effectively hit the ground running if he is elected.
"The next president will have to sit down with [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin," he said. "We better have a commander in chief who can do this job. We have a first-term senator in the White House today. We can't afford four more years of on-the-job training."
Jindal also accused Obama of being "so desperate for his legacy" that he pushed for a bad deal in Iran rather than no deal at all.
"The more we learn about this deal, the secret agreements, they get to pick their inspectors, this is a phenomenally bad deal," said Jindal, promising that if elected, he will not honor the agreement.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.