Juan Williams: An unpleasant 'TrumpCare' Surprise

[PsychoBabble]

http://thehill.com/opinion/juan-williams/323617-juan-williams-an-unpleasant-trumpcare-surprise

How can President Trump and the GOP Congress escape the political damage from their failed pledge to produce a better healthcare plan than ObamaCare — one that covers more people, offers more choice and is cheaper?

If Congress can’t pass the current flawed Republican plan, Trump told leading conservative groups last week, he has a Plan B. It is to keep badmouthing the Affordable Care Act as a “disaster” and then blame Democrats when ObamaCare collapses.

He is going to need a Plan C because there is a big problem with Plan B.

If the Affordable Care Act ever fails, it will be because of Republicans.
It was Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who drained money from “risk corridors” created to protect insurance companies from losing money.

And Republicans in 19 states refused to expand Medicaid, keeping about 4 million eligible Americans away from health insurance offered by ObamaCare.

Juan goes on to explain the many ways Repubs will own this disaster ...

[bdamomma]

1. I don't believe 45care will help Americans

when have the repigs ever done anything to help the American people?????? I hear crickets chirping.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. That's because it is Don-T-Care / DonTcare / Don'Tcare. . . . nt

[Caliman73]

2. I agree, but Democrats need to get out there and make sure that people understand it.

The people in the bubble will only hear what Fox, Breibart, etc... tell them. Democrats need to be out on every corner of the internet, print media, radio, and television reminding everyone that the Republicans crippled the bill.

[flamingdem]

4. I agree and even on DU I got flak about the need for Dems to run ads against new GOP ads

because people in red states still don't know that Obamacare = ACA.

A Repub Rep from Kentucky who supports ACA was on tele today saying just this, they are only now waking up to the fact of impending loss of their insurance.

[flamingdem]

5. And the flak I got - very common here on DU - is that it's a waste of time to educate deplorables

I totally disagree and so does Bernie.

Just as you say they only have propaganda like Fox and they need information. Let's face it even those with access to balanced information don't always understand insurance.

[Caliman73]

10. True.

Even if it isn't reaching the most vehement Trump supporters, 46% of the people in the country did not vote in the last election. The message needs to go out to those people and to people who "thought Trump would change things" Well, he did. He made things worse, just like Republicans always tend to make things worse, then Democrats come in and clean it up, then get blamed for it not being perfect.

[n2doc]

13. Ceding the info battlefield is never a good plan

Just like in 2010 when we did not do a good job refuting the RW lies about the ACA.

[flamingdem]

14. Exactly, the story has to be told very clearly and that includes pointing out RW lies

Somehow the Dems are still too nice. They need to be blunt and as you say never cede the info battlefield.

[notdarkyet]

18. Read last night, not sure where,I was falling asleep, that cancer patients are

Freaking out about losing their aca and an interruption in their treatment.

[DownriverDem]

19. Ads are good

Have you donated to the Dems so they can afford the ads? The Dems are not rich like the repubs. We are the ones who have to finance any ads.

[Fast Walker 52]

23. Yes, I have recurring donations to DNC and DCCC

and everyone who can donate, should. But we need a lot more money and importantly more media power.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

21. +1. Now more than ever, ACA needs to be widely known as ObamaCare. Contrast with GOP greatest. nt

[Wounded Bear]

3. The hard part will be getting Trumplodytes to believe the truth...

Core Repubs won't believe the truth about how the Repub Party has always done its very best to undermine and block the ACA.

In the end, Repubs don't want people to get the healthcare they need. Their "market-based" systems will always leave huge swaths of the populace out in the cold.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. And that's the way that they like it

"All the healthcare in the world for ME, but none for thee!"

[Wounded Bear]

9. But we all have access to the best care in the world...

[Proud Liberal Dem]

12. Access don't mean nothing

if you don't have the money to actually, you know, ACCESS it. I don't understand how so many people- and everybody has had to interact with a hospital and/or doctor at some point- know how expensive medical care, insurance, etc. is and complain (rightly) about how bad it is, yet they just seem to accept it just as an unmovable and unchangeable "fact of life" that they HAVE to accept. Many people, even when faced with evidence about how other countries' healthcare systems cover everybody equally, cheaper, and more efficiently than our system, eagerly buy into Republican lies and distortions about how these other countries' systems work (they have some flaws but are still light-years ahead of us) and buy into arguments that we shouldn't want any of that European-style "socialism" here.

[calimary]

28. This is a TERRIFIC point.

Hey, we ALL have "access" to prime rib. Just look at the menu!

But maybe all we can actually PAY for is a plain side salad.

[ProfessorGAC]

29. Like Someone Here Said Last Week (I Think)

I have access to a Ferrari. They sell them, for the right price at a place in downtown Chicago. Doesn't mean i can get one.

[ProfessorPlum]

11. just pausing here to say how amazingly awesome a word Trumplodytes is

perfect

[vlyons]

6. Yes, deeply underfunding the risk corridors

is causing the "death spiral" That and red states refusing medicaid.

[Renew Deal]

8. He's not worried about the truth

[Baitball Blogger]

15. Talk it into the ground and blame the failure on the other side.

Hmmm.... Sounds like he just exposed the entire Republican strategy.

[gratuitous]

16. Are there any pleasant surprises in the TrumpCare proposal?

The Republican plan, from what I can tell from their appearances on the Sunday talk shows, is to say "freedom" and "choice" a lot. Apparently these are magic, transformative words that make a shit sandwich taste like filet mignon. Details are for losers; the only things that matter are "freedom" and "choice."

[Jim Beard]

30. I don't understand why the media and the Democrats don't start telling the public.......

that insurance pools and choice is what we had before and they didn't work.

[Orrex]

17. That's not Trump's plan.

It's been the canonical Republican strategy for attacking every public service for half a century or more.

They do it with social security, with medicare, with interstate highways, with public utilities, and the list goes on.

Their attacks on public schools have been particularly effective, to the point that otherwise sensible people actually think that funneling money into unaccountable "charter" schools is a great option.


Trump is an incompetent and incomparable asshole, but in this regard he's simply dancing to the Republican drumbeat.

[Fast Walker 52]

22. since conservatives own a large swath of the media, they will have no problem getting that message

out like they normally do, with or without Trump. That's how they win elections despite their consistently horrible policies.

[Orrex]

24. Yes. Sadly, they've mastered the art.

Repubs could fire up their base to such a frenzy that there'd be fist fights to see who gets to put their head on the chopping block first.

[Jim Beard]

31. "Half of a century" huh, maybe John Birch?

[NewJeffCT]

25. While Williams is right

if the GOP controls the megaphone and gets the media to follow along with "DEMOCRATS BAD" and "OBAMACARE FAILURE, SAD" tweets and shrieks it won't matter if it's the GOP's fault.

[gopiscrap]

26. If a republican proposed it you know

you're going to get fucked. Unlike when a Democrat proposes bills they are usually progressive and in favor of the working class

[Johonny]

27. If he were smart he'd do the same thing he's doing with the current economy

Forget killing Obama care...take credit for it. If he were smart he'd veto the Rethug bill sign some half ass executive order and declare America is now under Trump care. His sheeple would believe it. They buy everything. They're stupid.