‘Obamacare Was a Big Lie’

During a lunch meeting with Republican senators Wednesday, President Donald Trump didn’t mince any words—and he certainly made no effort to hide his disappointment—over the GOP-controlled Senate’s inability to pass a health care bill.

“For seven years you promised the American people that you would repeal Obamacare,” he admonished the senators. “People are hurting. Inaction is not an option. Frankly, I don’t think we should leave town unless we have a health insurance plan, unless we can give our people great health care.”

The president reminded them that they now have everything they told voters they needed to be able to repeal the Affordable Care Act: the House, the Senate and the White House. And, he reminded them that unlike the previous seven years, he’s ready, willing and eager to sign a bill into law.

“I’ve been here just six months. I’m ready to act. I have pen in hand to—believe me, I’m sitting in that office, I have pen in hand. You never had that before,” he said. “You know, for seven years you had an easy route. ‘We’ll repeal, we’ll replace, and he’s [President Barack Obama] never going to sign it.’ But I’m signing it, so it’s a little bit different. I’m ready to act.”

The president reminded the senators that premiums have gone up 200 percent in Alaska and 118 percent in Arizona. Those states are “good” compared to other states that have few or no insurance companies selling individual health insurance plans. He continued: 

Despite the promise that premiums were to decrease by $2,500 on average, they’ve actually increased by almost $3,000, and even much more than that in some cases. It’s crushing the middle class and the families of the middle class. It’s frankly crushing our country.

Obamacare was a big lie. “You can keep your doctor.” Lie. “You can keep your plan.” Lie. It was a lie directly from the president—”You can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan.'” Twenty-eight times he said it—28 times—and it was a lie, and he knew it was. Now it’s hurting this country irreparably.

Premiums are so high that 6.5 million Americans chose to pay a fine to the IRS instead of buying insurance—the famous mandate. “We will pay not to take the insurance.” People don’t understand that. They don’t even understand what it is or what it represents.

If Obamacare is not repealed in 2018, over 1,300 counties in the United States will have only one insurer. Forty counties will have absolutely no coverage in the exchange, and that number will grow rapidly. I think those numbers are extremely conservative. I think they’re very low.”

At one point, the president jokingly “threatened” Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., who sat in the chair to his right, about what might happen in the next election if he doesn’t vote to repeal Obamacare. But, the message could have—and might have—just as easily been directed toward the senator sitting two chairs to the president’s left: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

“Any senator who votes against starting debate, he’s really telling America that you’re fine with Obamacare,” he added. “Being fine with Obamacare isn’t an option for another reason: because it’s gone. It’s failed. It’s not going to be around.

“We pay hundreds of millions of dollars a month in subsidies that the courts don’t even want us to pay. And when those payments stop, it stops immediately. It doesn’t take two years, three years, one year—it stops immediately. On the other hand, and I have to say this, a ‘yes’ vote will let senators debate the future of health care and suggest different ways to improve the bill.”

Looking to the Democrats for “help” isn’t an option to the president, either. He called them out, as well, for their obvious goal of forcing the so-called single payer system on Americans.

“We have no Democrat help,” he said. “They’re obstructionists; that’s all they’re good at is obstruction. They have no ideas. They’ve gone so far left they’re looking for single-payer. That’s what they want, but single-payer will bankrupt our country because it’s more than we take in for just health care. So, single-payer is never going to work.

“But that’s what they’d like to do. They have no idea what the consequences will be—and it will be horrible. Horrible health care where you wait in line for weeks to even see a doctor.”

You can watch the president’s remarks before the lunch meeting in the video clip above. Apparently, his “pep talk” had the desired effect because a group of GOP senators who opposed previous versions of the Better Care Reconciliation Act announced afterward they were meeting Wednesday night to discuss a way to revive the health care legislation.

“We’re discussing that,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters who asked if the meeting would likely center on a version of the BCRA. “I’m more optimistic that that would be the case. But if there’s no agreement, then we’ll still vote on the motion to proceed, but it’ll be to the 2015 just-repeal bill.” {eoa}