We’ve become accustomed to Trump lies.
But we winced with new heartache Thursday as President Donald Trunp declared victory in his push to repeal the Affordable Care Act and partied in the White House Rose Garden with Republican lawmakers after the House of Representatives finally squeaked out a narrow 217-to-213 approval of a new Trump/GOP health care plan that is expected to drop at least 24 million Americans off of their insurance and sky-rocket premiums for older Americans and those with pre-existing conditions.
Of course, those painful health care losses are not really the point. The point of the bill – aside from giving Republicans another chance to rebuke former President Barack Obama and the ACA’s nickname Obamacare – is to provide enormous tax cuts for the richest Americans.
Protesters chant as Republican and Democratic House members walk down the steps of the Capitol in Washington on Thursday after the Republican health care bill passed in the House.“Yes, premiums will be coming down; yes, deductibles will be coming down, but very importantly, it is a great plan,” Trump crowed at his garden party – the kind of event usually reserved for signing bills into law.
But this controversial bill was dangerously close to failing in the House for a second time, and still faces an uncertain reception in the U.S. Senate. Even if it passes in the Senate (which it would do only with major revisions), it and the changes then would have to again clear the House, another unlikely scenario.