It has been almost one year since Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States, and nine months since he took office.
In that amount of time, Trump has accomplished none of the major campaign promises he vowed to his base on the campaign trail.
For progressives and his other opponents, this is, of course, positive. It’s a serious body blow to an administration, though, to have no major accomplishments to speak of, especially when Republicans hold complete control of Congress, the White House, and most of the Supreme Court.
A clarion call the Republicans have been championing the past seven years, with Trump now on board, is the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
Republicans tried again last month to “repeal and replace” former President Barack Obama’s signature legislation with the “Graham-Cassidy-Johnson-Heller” health care bill.
Like its antecedents, it failed miserably.
This weekend, Trump desperately reached out to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) about giving repeal another try.
But Schumer wasn’t having it.
Schumer told the president in a statement that ACA repeal is “off the table.” The president should instead side with other Republicans working with Democrats to improve the existing law.
He said:
“If he [President Trump] wants to work together to improve the existing healthcare system, we Democrats are open to his suggestions. A good place to start might be the Alexander-Murray negotiations that would stabilize the system and lower costs.”
This statement was a response to Trump’s Saturday morning tweet:
“I called Chuck Schumer yesterday to see if the Dems want to do a great HealthCare Bill. ObamaCare is badly broken, big premiums. Who knows!”
After repeated failed repeal attempts, Trump has called Republicans “total quitters” and “fools.”
Trump demonstrated a sudden burst of bipartisanship last month when he blindsided and appalled Republicans by joining with Democrats on a surprising debt limit deal.
He belied that bipartisanship last week, though, when his administration announced it plans to unravel Affordable Care Act requirements for employers to provide insurance plans that cover women’s birth control.
Under this policy, businesses or non-profit organizations may cite religious or moral objections to exempt them from providing contraceptive coverage with no co-payment, as the law currently requires.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_2O-wBzPMw
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