Trump Demands Republicans Repeal Obamacare Immediately – Threatens Democrats

Says He’ll Campaign Against Democrats Up for Re-Election if They Vote to Block Repeal

President-elect Donald Trump, ignoring the “one president at a time” rule, Tuesday demanded Republicans in the House and Senate immediately repeal Obamacare, regardless of whether or not a viable replace plan is in place to be passed. Currently, no legitimate replace plan exists, even though Republicans have voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act more than 60 times over the past six years.

“We have to get to business. Obamacare has been a catastrophic event,” The New York Times reports Trump saying. “Long to me would be weeks,” he said. “It won’t be repeal and then two years later go in with another plan,” he added.

Trump threatened Democrats that he personally will campaign against anyone who votes against repealing Obamacare, especially the ten Democratic senators up for re-election in 2018 from states Trump won. 

“I won some of those states by numbers that nobody has seen. I will be out there campaigning,” he said.

The Times also notes that repeal votes are already scheduled for this week and that Donald Trump appears to be unaware of them.

“Mr. Trump, who seemed unclear about the timing of already scheduled votes in Congress this week, demanded a repeal vote ‘probably some time next week,’ and said ‘the replace will be very quickly or simultaneously, very shortly thereafter.'”

Repealing Obamacare was a central theme to Trump’s campaign. That he doesn’t even know when votes to repeal it are scheduled speaks volumes about his inability to “get into the weeds,” or to roll up his sleeves to understand facts and details.

Trump’s insistence that a replace plan be passed simultaneously or shortly thereafter, the Times reports, “is very likely impossible. Republicans in Congress are nowhere close to agreement on a major health bill that would replace President Obama’s signature domestic achievement. A number of Republicans in the House and Senate have said publicly that they wanted to hold off on voting to eviscerate the health law until a replacement measure could be negotiated.”

Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan says the Obamacare exchanges are in a “death spiral.” That’s entirely false.

“In fact, new enrollment numbers from the Obama administration undercut that claim,” the Times reports. “Despite increasing premiums and a torrent of negative news about the future of the health law, enrollment under the act’s health care plans has continued to grow. There are now 11.5 million people who have chosen the marketplace plans for this year, nearly 300,000 more than at this time last year.”

“Those numbers do not represent surprising enrollment growth — they are roughly in line with projections put out by the administration a few months ago — but they do suggest that higher prices have not scared away consumers. The proportion of young adults signing up has held steady, a sign that the mix of people buying insurance this year is unlikely to be substantially sicker and more expensive than the people enrolled in plans last year.”

“Today’s data show that this market is not merely stable, it is actually on track for growth,” Aviva Aron-Dine, a senior counselor to Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of Health and Human Services, said in a conference call with reporters. “Today we can officially proclaim these death spiral claims dead.”

30 million people would lose their healthcare insurance if the Affordable Care Act is repealed without a concurrent replacement plan taking effect.

Some responses via Twitter:

 

You can respond directly to Donald Trump by sending your comments to him on Twitter: @realdonaldtrump
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license