The President is supposed to care about all Americans — not just those who align with his self-serving agenda.
Of the many things to be infuriated about since Donald Trump became President, and there are many, his attempt to position Americans as “victims” of Obamacare and solicit Obamacare “disaster” stories from the public is pretty high on the list for me right now.
It’s bad enough that he’s supporting the Republicans’ craven attempt to deprive 24 million Americans of insurance coverage over the next decade — all to give the wealthy a tax cut and spite President Obama. (For the gory details, read Chris Savage’s excellent post.)
But to wage a propaganda campaign against Obamacare by directly soliciting only negative stories from the public is utterly despicable. It proves yet again that Trump and his cronies simply do not care about the lives of Americans. They only care about their personal agenda, one they think will enrich them politically and financially.
The White House’s call for Obamacare “disaster” stories is so ludicrous that I almost didn’t write this post. But it deserves scrutiny — and backlash. Here’s a brief excerpt of the White House blog post that went up after Trump held a “listening session” for “victims” of Obamacare:
President Trump wants to hear from hard-working Americans like you. How has Obamacare affected you? Share your Obamacare disaster story.
During the meeting, one woman revealed that she had her health insurance cancelled three times since Obamacare became law. Another attendee had her insurance jump from $17,000 a year to a devastating $52,500 a year for her struggling family, while yet another said her health insurance now cost more than her mortgage.
Obamacare came packaged as the healthcare solution for all Americans. Instead, the country was given hundreds of pages of broken promises.
Millions of hard-working Americans have been impaired by soaring costs, cancelled plans, and overbearing mandates. As one of those innocent Americans, President Trump wants to hear your story about how this disastrous law has affected you and your family.
Has anyone explained to Donald Trump that insurance companies — the very entities he and Republicans are cozying up to with their sham of a replacement plan, the American Health Care Act (AHCA) — are the ones who set the price of insurance premiums? Or that they cancelled plans all the time before Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act, or ACA)? Did he ask these “victims” if they’d tried to shop around for a better plan, which Obamacare makes possible through HealthCare.gov? Did he make any effort whatsoever to talk to some of the millions of Americans whose lives have been improved and even saved by access to insurance and healthcare under Obamacare?
Of course he didn’t. That would not fit into his aggressively heartless agenda. Plus, we all know Donald Trump does not understand how health insurance works — he himself admitted it was “complex.” Based on the absurd spin they’re putting on their defense of the AHCA, Congressional Republicans don’t understand how health insurance works, either.
But it’s the job of the President of the United States and Congress to represent ALL Americans, not just those who can help them achieve their increasingly nefarious agenda. Let’s remind them of that, shall we?
Use the White House form to submit your Obamacare success story. As I’ve been writing about here for more than three years, there are more success stories than there are “disaster” stories — nearly all of which can be easily refuted with some basic fact-checking. That’s why I started telling Obamacare success stories and continue to do so. The positive stories were being shouted down by Republican misinformation, and it’s happening again. (For those who might ask why we only tell positive stories here: It’s not our duty to represent everyone. Eclectablog makes it clear at the top of every page that we are a Progressive voice and I chose to highlight positive stories when very few others were doing so.)
I’ve never said Obamacare was perfect. President Obama himself said there was more work to do to improve the law, including lowering costs for both the government and consumers. But despite Paul Ryan’s empty promises that no one would have the rug pulled out from under them, that’s exactly what the Republican replacement will do to 24 million of us.
The worst thing we can do is stay silent while people like Donald Trump and Paul Ryan play games with our lives. The best thing we can do is lift up our voices in a mighty roar demanding to be heard.
Tell the White House your Obamacare success story today.
Also contact your Representative in the U.S. Congress HERE and your U.S. Senator HERE. Let them know that lives are at stake — as are their jobs in the next election if they deny Americans access to health insurance to pay for the care they need.
I’m going to keep telling Obamacare success stories here. If you want to share yours, tell us about it HERE to be considered for a future post.
[Photos by Amy Lynn Smith.]
