USA Today on Wednesday ran an op-ed penned by President Donald Trump, and many Americans are furious.
Ordinarily, any reputable news outlet that runs an op-ed will fact check it and have the author make changes if its contents is contains inaccuracies.
Apparently, USA Today does not abide by that standard.
President Trump’s op-ed, titled “Democrats ‘Medicare for All’ plan will demolish promises to seniors,” starts with that lie and keeps them coming.
“The Democrats want to outlaw private health care plans, taking away freedom to choose plans while letting anyone cross our border. We must win this,” is the subtitle.
It gets worse.
“The truth is that the centrist Democratic Party is dead. The new Democrats are radical socialists who want to model America’s economy after Venezuela,” Trump writes.
Again, many reputable news outlet would never have allowed that lie to be published.
Trump also falsely talks about “Democrats’ absolute commitment to end enforcement of our immigration laws by abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That means millions more would cross our borders illegally and take advantage of health care paid for by American taxpayers.”
And he makes this astonishingly false claim:
“As a candidate, I promised that we would protect coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions and create new health care insurance options that would lower premiums. I have kept that promise, and we are now seeing health insurance premiums coming down.”
Trump currently is backing legislation and a court battle to remove the ObamaCare requirement that bans insurance companies from refusing to cover or charging more for coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. And health insurance premiums are going up, in large part directly asa result of Trump’s intentional acts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.
Trump also makes this false claim:
“In practice, the Democratic Party’s so-called Medicare for All would really be Medicare for None. Under the Democrats’ plan, today’s Medicare would be forced to die.”
The Washington Post’s Fact Checker offered this response:
As the Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale notes, USA Today, which has 3.66 million followers, is also blasting out tweets like this, not even making clear that these are lies:
Here’s how some others are responding on Twitter:
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license