President Donald Trump has been talking about Obamacare recently and this time he has a new spin on why the law still exists. Trump said that he had the chance to “kill it” but decided, out of the goodness of his heart, to keep the act intact. The President said during an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd that he could have “killed Obamacare politically” if he wanted to but he made the decision not to.” He also said that there are still a lot of issues with the law that need to be fixed. Trump promised that the GOP will deliver a comprehensive healthcare plan if Republicans win control of the House and Senate in the upcoming elections.
These recent claims couldn’t be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, Trump has been on the front line criticizing congressional Republicans for failing to assist the White House in its efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. It seems like the president is actually trying to rewrite history on what happened a few years ago. Trump also seems to be aware of the fact that healthcare is a very important issue for most Americans right now. It’s the main reason why Democrats were able to gain control of the House in the midterms last year. The president, and by extension the GOP, feel that if they can craft a winning healthcare message, they will be able to appeal to a wider population of voters around the country.
The news comes as Trump gets ready to sign an executive order that will try to improve price transparency in the healthcare sector. The president is expected to present the executive order as one of the many strategies that the administration has taken to try and reduce the cost of drugs and healthcare in the US. Nonetheless, it is clear that Trump wants to look like he prevailed even after clearly failing to fulfill one of his key campaign promises on healthcare. The president wants people to believe that he had a choice to get rid of Obamacare but decided not to do so. In fact, Trump was backed into a corner after Republicans failed to pass a comprehensive repeal even with a Senate and House majority.
This failure is considered by many analysts as one of Trump’s most embarrassing political defeats during his first term as president. Many Republicans expressed fierce opposition to the Affordable Care Act when it was first presented in Congress. The GOP voted against the law but they didn’t have the numbers to block it.
On the elections that followed, the party made the repeal and replacement of Obamacare a major area of focus on their messaging and it worked. Republicans were able to retain the control of Congress and Senate. However, ever since they haven’t done anything. A subject that used to be an appealing campaign message for the GOP has now become a touchy and contentious issue that touches on all aspects of American lives.
