Republicans were distracted from combating the country’s rising debt by fighting to repeal ObamaCare in the clash over the government shutdown, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said on Sunday.

Instead of focusing on the healthcare law, Republicans should have been trying to limit government spending, he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“The fight on ObamaCare, or the Affordable Care Act, took us off-message,” he said. “The larger percentage of the American public knows that Washington wastes money. They just don’t have a clue on how bad it really is.”

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