Bernie: Trump has to rescue Obamacare or admit he's a liar

[bigtree]

Washington Post ‏@washingtonpost 29m29 minutes ago
Bernie Sanders: Trump has to rescue Obamacare or admit he’s a liar http://wapo.st/2iv5MI2 via @PostEverything

The president-elect might have forgotten his campaign promises. But we won't.
by Bernie Sanders

It didn’t take long. During the first week of 2017, the new Republican Congress has begun efforts to dismantle America’s health-care system. Their long-standing goal, consistent with their right-wing ideology, is to take away health insurance from tens of millions of Americans, privatize Medicare, make massive cuts to Medicaid and defund Planned Parenthood. At the same time, in the midst of grotesque and growing income and wealth inequality, they’re preparing to allow pharmaceutical companies to increase drug prices and to hand out obscene tax breaks for the top one-tenth of 1 percent.

Let me be absolutely clear: The impact of repealing large pieces of the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans are planning to put on Donald Trump’s desk on his first day in the White House, would be devastating. If Republicans get their way, 30 million Americans, 82 percent of whom are from working families, will lose their health insurance. With Medicare privatized, seniors will see their premiums increase by as much as 50 percent while their benefits are cut and funding for nursing-home care dries up. Underfunded hospitals around the country, particularly in rural areas, could be forced to close their doors, leaving millions of Americans with nowhere to turn for critical medical care. Patient protections, like preventing insurance companies from denying coverage because of a preexisting condition, removing the cap on maximum health-care benefits, allowing children to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26 and preventing discrimination by insurers, would be eliminated...

Not only is the Republican plan immoral and bad economic and social policy, it violates numerous promises that Donald Trump made to the American people during his campaign. Trump told senior citizens and the American working class, many of whom ended up voting for him, that he was a different kind of Republican, and that he would not cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. In a May 2015 tweet, Trump said: “I was the first & only GOP presidential candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid.” In September, he told “60 Minutes” that if he was elected president, his health-care plan would take care of “everybody.”

Trump now has a choice: He can tell the American people that these campaign promises were lies and that he never intended to keep them. Or (and I hope this is the case) he can instruct his Republican colleagues to end their efforts to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and inform them that if they don’t, he will veto any bills that cut those life-and-death programs...


read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/01/09/bernie-sanders-donald-trump-has-two-choices-admit-hes-a-liar-or-rescue-obamacare/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.bdd3696a0fa7

[flamingdem]

1. Bernie knows how to fight Trump's bullshit

He can hammer away relentlessly, I hope other Dems are listening and don't recede into the shadows

[flamingdem]

2. And, we need to start saying "30 million" not 20 million will lose Obamacare

That is a more impressive number and many are new enrollees.

Can you imagine finally having healthcare just to have it snatched away?

[treestar]

3. I had this thought that Donald might

veto the ACA repeal. They may even be setting it up so he can look benevolent in this way.

[atreides1]

4. As if Trump cares!!!

He lied about the wall, he lied about putting Hillary in jail, Trump has been lying all of his life!!!

Does Senator Sanders actually believe that Trump is overly concerned being a liar? Besides, it doesn't matter to the racists, bigots, homophobes and religious fanatics, that he lied...in their delusional, twisted world...Trump is their hero, the Great White Hope...they'll follow him to hell, and take the rest of us them!!!

[WhiteTara]

5. He "has" to do nothing

and he won't respond except to make fun of Sanders (if he even considers him relevant.)

[bigtree]

7. to be fair to Sanders

...he's in much the same position opposing Trump as we are, and his statement is more than likely going to be backed up by an effort to rally Americans to actively oppose the republican moves.

I'd guess that's the substance behind the rhetoric.

[MoonRiver]

6. And what exactly will Bernie do if orange does nothing to rescue ACA?

[bigtree]

8. I remember very well when Rostenkowski (D) was besieged by angry seniors and others

...over the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988, signed by Pres. Ronald Reagan on July 01, 1988, which contained a tax on 40% of the elderly (up to $800 per year for an individual and up to $1,600 per year for a couple.)

Bernie is working to rally that kind of opposition to what would arguably be a much worse hit on recipients.

[MoonRiver]

9. I hope he can do something/anything to stop this horror. eom