Remember in 2016 when candidate Trump promised healthcare was going to be terrific, cheaper, and so easy?
Elijah Cummings remembers. And he remembers all the times Trump promised he'd have a plan out in two weeks, in four months, when "we" take back the House. And now the courts, with help from ONLY REPUBLICANS, is poised to dismantle the ACA again, without a single bill in consideration for replacing the repeal. Because "repeal and replace" was and is a sick joke.
House Oversight held a hearing Wednesday morning and Chairman Cummings reminded those in attendance:
- On March 25, 2019, the Trump Administration filed a letter with the U.S. Court of Appeals hearing the Texas v. United States litigation reversing its own previous legal position and no longer defending any part of the ACA in the—an action that imperils protections for 130 million people with pre-existing conditions, would cause millions of adults to lose coverage gained under Medicaid expansion, and would destabilize the individual market—forcing millions of Americans to pay significantly more for less comprehensive coverage.
- Since President Trump took office in January 2017, neither the Administration nor congressional Republicans have offered a plan to replace the ACA that would prevent significant coverage losses or the elimination of consumer protections.
- The Trump Administration’s effort to invalidate the ACA undermines its own purported policy goals, including combating the opioid epidemic, lowering prescription drug prices, and ending the HIV epidemic.
- According to press accounts, this decision was driven by individuals inside the White House—including the Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought—and made over the objections of the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
- To investigate these reports, on May 13, 2019, Chairman Elijah Cummings and four other Chairmen sent a letter requesting an interview with Acting OMB Director Vought, but the White House declined to make him available for an interview. On June 26, 2019, Chairman Cummings invited Vought to testify at this hearing. OMB declined the Chairman’s invitation on July 3, 2019.
Of course, no one from the Trump White House will testify in the House, ever. They are obstruction personified.
