Republicans are trying to have it both ways on health care during the
2024 campaign. They boast that they want to deregulate insurance and
massively cut government spending, yet they also claim that they would
never do anything to endanger people’s coverage.
That two-step keeps getting them into trouble. House Speaker Mike
Johnson was recently caught on a tape promising to take “a blow torch to
the regulatory state.” Donald Trump, Johnson said, would want to “go
big” in his second term because he can’t run for a third one, the
speaker told a group of Republican voters in Pennsylvania. And health
care, Johnson said, would be “a big part” of the GOP’s agenda.
One attendee directly asked Johnson: No Obamacare? “No Obamacare,”
Johnson said.
Kamala Harris’s campaign quickly flagged Johnson’s comments, and Republicans backtracked. The Donald Trump campaign said that was “not President Trump’s policy position” and Trump tried to distance himself further in a social media post.
"Lyin’ Kamala is giving a News Conference now, saying that I want to end
the Affordable Care Act. I never mentioned doing that, never even
thought about such a thing ..." [Lol]
Johnson’s comments were not an isolated incident. Just last month,
Trump’s vice presidential nominee, JD "Vance", hinted at “a deregulatory agenda so that people can pick a health care plan that fits them.”
Elon Musk, who sometimes appears to be campaigning to be shadow
president of the United States, has pledged to cut $2 trillion from the
federal government’s $6.8 trillion budget. He has acknowledged that the
cuts would result in “temporary” hardship, but insisted they would be to the long-term benefit of the country.
About $1 in every $5 in the federal budget goes to health care. Barring
a severe cut to the US military (unlikely), such a plan would require
massive cuts to the health care programs. Trump has often said he will
protect Medicare, which covers seniors, but he has in the past endorsed enormous cuts to Medicaid, the program for low-income people that
insures 73 million Americans, as part of the 2017 ACA repeal-and-replace
bills.
The main Republican bill to repeal and replace the ACA that nearly
passed in 2017 was in fact as much about making massive Medicaid cuts by capping the program’s funding as it was about loosening health insurance regulations or repealing the individual mandate.
https://www.vox.com/health-care/381484/2024-election-donald-trump-health-care-mike-johnson-obamacare
Why not be honest about it, then?
"Pelle. Don't be an ass".
--
"And off they went, from here to there,
The bear, the bear, and the maiden fair"
-- Traditional
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