Bloomberg To Trump: Stop Sabotaging Obamacare!

 

By way of introduction, here’s every single time Trump has tweeted about Obamacare since his inauguration:

Trump1

Trump2

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Via Bloomberg’s Editors

Say what you will about Congress’s failure to repeal Obamacare — and there was a lot to be said about its reckless efforts — at least the process acknowledged one basic fact of America’s constitutional system: If Congress doesn’t like a law, it can change it. If the president does not like a law, he cannot be allowed to sabotage it.

Yet that is what President Donald Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price have been doing for months with the Affordable Care Act. For the sake of both his constituents and the Constitution, which requires the president to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” he needs to stop.

Just after last week’s congressional vote failed, Trump tweeted his desire to “let Obamacare implode.” He subsequently said that “bailouts” for insurance companies — by which he presumably meant the subsidies that enable insurers to offset costs for low-income consumers — would be terminated. For his part, Price said Sunday that “no decision’s been made” on whether to continue the subsidies that enable low-income Americans to afford insurance.

This continued sowing of confusion and doubt may be more tactical than strategic, or it may be neither; either way, it’s unconscionable. The ACA — for better and, in some instances, worse — is the health-care system America has. If Trump continues to try to destroy the law, he will not only erode his stature and the presidency’s, he will also hurt vulnerable Americans.

There is little dispute about what is needed to make sure the law is structurally sound. To begin, a lasting commitment to pay those cost-sharing subsidies is required. The individual mandate has to be strengthened and enforced — at least until such time as an alternative mechanism is found to persuade Americans to buy health insurance. And efforts to encourage the uninsured to enroll in Obamacare plans must be resumed.

Those steps, in turn, depend on the president abandoning his attacks on health insurance markets and committing himself to being a constructive force in providing access to health care.

House and Senate Republicans took their best shots at repeal. Their efforts failed because the ACA has succeeded in providing access to health care for millions more Americans, and even Republicans are wary of rolling back such tangible progress.

Trump should be, too. It’s time to move on from this battle. Trump has long spoken of delivering superior, cheaper health care. Better to focus on that goal rather than on an empty, partisan promise to “repeal” Obamacare. The ACA is not without flaws. It is those very flaws that offer the president an opportunity to recast the health-care debate in a more productive way.

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9 thoughts on “Bloomberg To Trump: Stop Sabotaging Obamacare!

    1. Is that a joke? If it is I didn’t get it sorry, if not then then you’re wrong. ONE of the main reasons for the dollar weakness is Trump’s ineptitude and in over 6 months he has got nothing done, no healthcare reform (thank god), no tax reform, no nothing. Not to mention the Fed sounding more dovish, poor inflation figures etc etc.

    1. Jack, it appears you are a FOX viewer. Perhaps you do not know the facts:

      How many people have been deported under Obama?
      President Barack Obama has often been referred to by immigration groups as the “Deporter in Chief.”
      Between 2009 and 2015 his administration has removed more than 2.5 million people through immigration orders, which doesn’t include the number of people who “self-deported” or were turned away and/or returned to their home country at the border by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

      How does he compare to other presidents?
      According to governmental data, the Obama administration has deported more people than any other president’s administration in history. 🙂
      In fact, they have deported more than the sum of all the presidents of the 20th century. 🙂
      President George W. Bush’s administration deported just over two million during his time in office; and Obama’s numbers don’t reflect his last year in office, for which data is not yet available.

      Aug. 2016 http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obamas-deportation-policy-numbers/story?id=41715661

      – Murphy

      1. Murphy
        My bad. When I said I agree with him, I meant I agree with the writer not Trump with it came to sabotaging Obamacare. Sorry. As far as Obama and illegal immigration, he should have done what was needed to get those cases solved faster and worked on getting more ICE agents, border guards, etc. And should not give protections for dreamers.

  1. How is it right and moral not to give protections to “Dreamers”? They are educated here, have a social place, speak English, get jobs and pay taxes. So what do you do? Send them to Mexico, homeless and broke?Make them “People without a country”? For Shame.

    1. Not enforcing the law only encourages more to break the law. My mom came here legally, followed all the rules. Mexico should be helping their citizens when they return. You’re trying to use guilt to make people accept illegal immigration.

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