Trump Brags How He Duped American People With Tax Bill: ‘We Have Essentially Repealed Obamacare’

President Admits He Told Republicans to ‘Be Quiet’ About ObamaCare Individual Mandate Portions of Bill

President Trump could barely contain himself Wednesday afternoon at his Cabinet meeting, telling reporters how he duped the American people with his tax-cuts-for-the-rich bill but telling GOP lawmakers to not talk about the portion of the bill that repeals the ObamaCare individual mandate.

“When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means ObamaCare is being repealed,” Trump claimed during his Cabinet meeting at the White House. “We have essentially repealed ObamaCare and we will come up with something much better.”

The president went on to confirm his false claim, “Obamacare has been repealed in this bill.”

“We didn’t want to bring it up – I told people specifically, ‘Be quiet with the fake news media,’ because I didn’t want them talking too much about it, because I didn’t know how people,” he said, interrupting himself, perhaps realizing he was admitting to duping the American people.

“Now that it’s approved, I can say, the individual mandate on health care, where you had to pay not to have insurance – think of that one: you pay not to have insurance – the individual mandate has been repealed,” Trump bragged.

Of course, repealing the individual mandate, while damaging to ObamaCare, does not “repeal ObamaCare.”

New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait offers an excellent response to Trump’s remarks:

Almost none of this is true. Indeed, it reveals the opposite. Trump recognizes that he has no chance to repeal Obamacare, so he is instead pretending to have killed the law that his base loathes (but which the country as a whole likes quite a bit).

Most of Obamacare remains in place. That includes such things as reforms that have helped hold down medical inflation, the expansion of Medicaid to cover the poor, subsidies for individuals to buy insurance, and regulations to prevent insurers from cherry-picking the healthy and excluding the sick. “When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means Obamacare is being repealed. Because they get their money from the individual mandate,” Trump “explains.” It is possible he thinks this is true. It isn’t. The law is primarily financed by other taxes.

It is correct that repealing the individual mandate will impair the effectiveness of the marketplaces that sell insurance to people who can’t get coverage through their employer. That will make premiums more expensive, and possibly drive insurers out of some markets. States that want to have a highly functioning marketplace will be able to impose a state-level mandate, though, an outcome that could make insurance cheaper in blue states than red ones.

EARLIER:

GOP Tax Scam Bill Heads to Trump’s Desk for Signing, Subsequent Plundering of Economy on Backs of Low and Middle-Income Americans

‘Are You Living in a Fantasy World?’: NBC’s Savannah Guthrie Scorches Paul Ryan on Tax Cut Bill

Because Republicans Cannot Do Anything Right the House Will Have to Re-Vote on the Disastrous Tax Bill Yet Again.

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