March 27, 2019

Republicans Are Privately Begging Trump to Drop His New Effort to Kill Obamacare

The president, unsurprisingly, appears to be ignoring his party’s concerns.

Carol Guzy/ZUMA

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The Trump administration’s latest effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which now seeks to completely invalidate the landmark healthcare law, has confounded many. Why would President Donald Trump reignite the very battle that was seen as one of the primary reasons Republicans lost the House in last year’s midterms? 

That confusion apparently extends to his fellow Republican leaders. On Wednesday, Axios reported that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy phoned the president to tell him that the newest plan to go after Obamacare made no sense, and that it would likely cost them politically in upcoming elections. McCarthy’s warning comes on the heels of a similar report that two of Trump’s Cabinet members, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Attorney General William Barr, also disagreed with the president’s plan.

Despite the opposition, in remarks from the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump again expressed his commitment to his administration’s boldest move yet to go after the Affordable Care Act. “We are going to be the Republicans, the party of great healthcare,” Trump told reporters. “The Democrats, they’ve let you down. They came up with Obamacare, it’s terrible.”

He also appeared to take credit for somehow improving the healthcare law.

But while Republicans may privately object to the president’s plan, Democrats are outspoken in their reactions to Trump’s remarks. As Mother Jones explained, the administration’s announcement that it would support the elimination of the Affordable Care Act will likely make it even easier for Democratic 2020 candidates to demonstrate that Trump and Republicans have worked endlessly to destroy the ever-increasingly popular healthcare law.

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