President-Elect Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal today that he is no longer so determined to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Although he had repeatedly promised on the campaign trail that he would make repealing “Obamacare” his first priority, now that he has actually won the election that he never intended to win, he is changing his mind. After only two days as the future President, Trump has realized that his ridiculous rhetorical promises were overblown.
The future man-in-charge said that after talking with Obama, he realizes that many aspects of the ACA are very well liked and much needed. He said that he is now willing to look closely at all of the parts of the ACA, willing to keep parts of it.
He told 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl tonight that he absolutely intends to keep in place the part of the ACA that allows young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26. He said that he wants to keep the provision that prohibits insurance companies from denying people with pre-existing conditions.
Trump said:
“Either Obamacare will be amended, or repealed and replaced.”
So what does that mean?
Well, for one thing, it means that like all of those politicians he has criticized for the last 8 years, Trump is backing down on one of his key promises.
That didn’t take long.
The Affordable Care Act was never popular with Republicans, who have tried no fewer than 60 times to repeal the law. Of course, with a Democratic President and not enough conservatives to override a veto, it was a perfectly safe position for Republicans to be.
They could posture. They could scream. They could rant about socialism all they wanted. They weren’t ever actually in a position to take away anyone’s health insurance.
Now the truth is smacking them all right in the fact.
A full 20 million more Americans are now insured than before the passage of the ACA. We are now inching our way toward a kind of truly universal health care.
Even Donald Trump has to admit that it would be completely stupid to take that away from the American people.
Watch the President dancing backwards as fast as he can.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
