“Healthcare is working along very well. You’re gonna have a big surprise with a great health care package.” President Trump told the White House pool in the Roosevelt Room Wednesday afternoon.
When asked what that meant, Trump answered according to the White House pool report sent to PoliticusUSA, “I think you’re going to have a great, great surprise. It’s going to be great.”
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“And just to do a little official business, healthcare is working along very well. You’re gonna have a big surprise with a great health care package. So now they’re happy,” Trump said.
A reporter asked, “What do you mean by great surprise, sir?”
The President responded with a vague non-answer, “I think you’re going to have a great, great surprise. It’s going to be great.”
Minutes later in the Oval Office, a pool reporter shouted a question about healthcare, asking President Trump about Senator Chuck Schumer’s desire to have a meeting with all 100 senators regarding healthcare.
“I don’t think he’s serious,” Trump responded. “He hasn’t been serious. Obamacare is such a disaster. And he wants to try and save something that’s hurting a lot of people. It’s hurting a lot of people.”
‘Obamacare is “hurting” a lot of people’ isn’t a real thing; it’s a GOP talking point.
There are parts of Obamacare that need to be tweaked, and parts that Republicans are deliberately undermining – so if it is hurting people, Republicans are to blame for their part in deliberately hurting Americans.
But this argument makes no sense. It made no sense when Sean Spicer tried it earlier today, claiming that 28.2 million Americans being without insurance was a bad thing, so Republicans should rush to “fix” that by making the number 49 million people without insurance. Forty-nine million is more than 28.2 million.
It made no sense when HHS Secretary Tom Price claimed there were Obamacare “victims” in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. It should be noted that Obamacare is actually a law, and Price is supposed to be upholding it, but instead he is trolling it pretty hard and actually seeming to invite or encourage healthcare companies not to offer insurance on the Obamacare exchanges.
Health insurers are actually blaming President Trump for the rate hikes that Republicans keep claiming are proof that Obamacare is hurting people. If Republicans wanted to fix this problem they are partially creating, they could.
Healthcare isn’t something about which the President should be threatening/promising “surprises.” The secrecy element is exactly what derailed McConnell’s efforts to push through the Republican tax cut plan that they are calling a health care bill.
The American people don’t want “surprises”; they want healthcare that covers them and their families. The Republican plan would kick 22 million more people off of healthcare in order to give a tax cut to the very rich.
The people have had enough “surprises” like this.
These kinds of big, vague promises got Trump elected by his base of people who didn’t bother or care to check on his actual policies to see if they were realistic, but they don’t work well when it comes to actually getting something legislatively accomplished.
Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.
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.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
