Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:06 pm
President Trump and certain Republicans have been calling on Democrats to work with them on healthcare in the wake of the epic failure of Trumpcare, however Republicans can’t stop insulting the Democrats even as they beg for help and have expressed excitement over an Obamacare failure that would harm millions of Americans.
Senate Democrats aren’t having it. Instead, 44 Senate Democrats called out Trump on his January 20th executive order that is undermining Obamacare, leading to the Obamacare “explosion” Trump referred to when blaming Democrats for his own failures.
Democrats told Trump they will be happy to work with him… after he rescinds his executive order that harms Obamacare.
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As a condition of working together, Democrats requested that Trump abandon his efforts to undermine Obamacare, “To do that, your Administration must commit to putting an end to all efforts to unravel the ACA, undermine the health care system, increase costs, or hurt patients, providers and families. As a first step, we request that you rescind your ACA executive order signed on January 20th [1].”
Democrats told Trump to ceases his repeal efforts and stop undermining Obamacare, and then they will work work with him to improve Obamacare in a bipartisan way, noting that his comments that it would be a good thing if Obamacare were to explode were concerning, given that it would hurt millions of Americans if this happened.
Trump signed an executive order that is undermining Obamacare by dismantling the regulations that protect Americans and also directing the IRS to ignore the mandate, which will result in increased prices for insurance — an issue Republicans have used against Obamacare already, as they deny that prices increase yearly and in fact were, in general, more expensive for less coverage pre-Obamacare.
Democrats are turning the Republican attempt to shame them for not working with Trump to undermine a law that is helping millions of Americans into a public exposure of the Trump/Republican charade that they want to help Americans.
If Republicans want to help Americans, why didn’t they do one thing to try to make Obamacare better instead of spending all of their time and energy obstructing, undermining, lying about, and trolling a law that has helped save the lives of Americans.
Democrats aren’t playing the game on Republican terms anymore, and it doesn’t seem like this fact has quite sunk in with Republicans yet.
But it will. Republicans will need to show an ounce of public respect for their colleagues on the other side of the aisle and most importantly for the American people they are supposed to be serving before the Democrats will “work” with them.
The next time a Republican or pundit is making the argument that Democrats need to work with Trump and Republicans, remember that “working together’ is a two way street. Republicans are in no position to demand this after spending years shutting down the government in fits over not having the White House, and after their promise on day one of Obama’s first term to undermine and obstruct him at all costs.
But Democrats aren’t citing that obstruction as their reason – they are citing the facts that Republicans aren’t actually trying to help Americans get affordable healthcare coverage. Unless and until Republicans are serious about trying to be part of the solution, Democrats won’t play.
Here’s the letter in full as sent to PoliticusUSA by Senator Chuck Schumer’s office:
Dear President Trump:
We respectfully request that you abandon your efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and undermine the U.S. health care system so that we can work together to improve the law and lower the cost of health care for all Americans.
To do that, your Administration must commit to putting an end to all efforts to unravel the ACA, undermine the health care system, increase costs, or hurt patients, providers and families. As a first step, we request that you rescind your ACA executive order signed on January 20th [1].
While we would welcome your sincere interest in bipartisan work to improve quality, lower costs, and expand coverage, we are concerned by your recent statement indicating it would be a good thing to make the ACA “explode,†[2] which would hurt millions of Americans. Instead, we urge you to use your executive authority to support a stable, competitive insurance marketplace.
Members of the Democratic caucus remain ready and willing to work with you on policies that would improve the stability of the individual insurance market. We ask that you begin the work of improving health care for millions of Americans by rescinding your January 20th executive order.
Sincerely,
Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Michael Bennet (D-CO)
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Thomas Carper (D-DE)
Robert Casey (D-PA)
Chris Coons (D-DE)
Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV)
Joe Donnelly (D-IN)
Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)
Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Al Franken (D-MN)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Kamala Harris (D-CA)
Maggie Hassan (D-NH)
Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI)
Tim Kaine (D-VA)
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Edward Markey (D-MA)
Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Chris Murphy (D-CT)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Gary Peters (D-MI)
Jack Reed (D-RI)
Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Brian Schatz (D-HI)
Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Tom Udall (D-NM)
Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
Mark Warner (D-VA)
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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