DNC Chair Jaime Harrison released the following statement to recognize the 14th anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA):
“Fourteen years ago, President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Democrats in Congress passed the Affordable Care Act into law and ushered in one of the most consequential health care reforms in our nation’s history. Thanks to the ACA, millions of uninsured Americans and people with preexisting conditions have been able to receive affordable, accessible health care without having to choose between paying their medical bills or putting food on their tables.
“Under President Biden and Vice President Harris, we’ve made incredible strides in expanding access to health care and thanks to their leadership, a record-breaking 21.3 million Americans enrolled in health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplace during the 2024 Open Enrollment Period.
“We must remember: Trump was only one vote away from repealing the ACA when he was in office, and he’s campaigning on a promise to finish the job. If Trump gets his way, Americans with preexisting conditions could lose critical protections, prescription drug costs and premiums would go through the roof, and uninsured rates would skyrocket.
“The choice this November is between President Biden, who has bolstered the ACA to lower costs and expand access to health care, and Donald Trump, who is vowing to rig our health care system for special interest groups. Americans will vote this November like their health depends on it – because it does.”
Approaching the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, DNC spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement:
“Millions of hardworking Americans rely on essential health benefits provided by the Affordable Care Act, but Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans could not care less. Access to affordable prescription drugs, maternity and newborn care, mental health care, emergency services, and more are all on the chopping block for millions of Americans if Trump and the GOP have their way. The American people won’t let them get a chance – voters will reject Trump’s extreme MAGA health care agenda this November just like they did four years ago.”
Donald Trump’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act could eliminate access to essential health benefits such as affordable prescription drugs, maternity and newborn care, mental health care, and emergency services.
Vox: “Trump’s action could lead to many association health plans being exempted from core Obamacare requirements like the coverage of certain essential health benefits.”
“Essential health benefits, requiring that insurers cover everything from hospital care to prescription drugs to maternity care, are central to the ACA’s insurance protections: They prevent plans from crafting their coverage to attract mostly young and healthy customers at the expense of older and sicker people.”
New York Times: “[Trump’s health plans] may not have to provide certain ‘essential health benefits’ like mental health care, emergency services, maternity and newborn care, and prescription drugs.”
Politico: “Short-term plans do not have to meet the same requirements as a health insurance plan sold on the Obamacare insurance exchanges. These requirements can include coverage of pre-existing conditions and certain essential health benefits such as prescription drugs.”
USA Today Opinion: “[Repealing the ACA] would allow insurers to skip coverage of essential services, including maternity care.”
Trump is still pushing to repeal the ACA and rip away access to affordable care from millions of Americans.
Daily Beast: “Trump Revives Plan to Dismantle Obamacare if Elected in 2024”
Mediaite: “‘OBAMACARE SUCKS!!!’ Trump Rants About New Plan — Years After He Promised It Was ‘Two Weeks’ Away”
HuffPost: “Donald Trump says he is still interested in repealing the Affordable Care Act, which means health care for tens of millions of people would be in jeopardy if he becomes president again next year. Trump said Saturday on his website Truth Social that he was ‘looking at alternatives’ to the 2010 health care law, also known as ‘Obamacare,’ which has reduced the number of Americans without health insurance to historic lows and established basic guarantees of coverage for all Americans regardless of pre-existing conditions.”
Trump: “The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives. We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”
Trump: “Obamacare is a disaster. And I said, ‘We’re gonna do something about it.’”
When he was in office, Trump came up just one vote short in Congress from achieving his goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act.
The Hill: “On the campaign trail, Trump has doubled down on his promise to repeal the ACA, a feat he fell one vote short of in 2017.”
Trump: “I will get health care. I’m one vote short of health care. I’ll get health care.”
Reuters: “The most previous attempt to repeal Obamacare fell one vote short in July, in a humiliating setback for Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.”
Trump and MAGA Republicans’ plan to rip away Americans’ health care is overwhelmingly unpopular among voters.
Politico: “Obamacare is even more popular than the last time Trump tried to kill it”
“Roughly three-in-five Americans like the 2010 health care law, even more than when Trump and Republicans in Congress came to the brink of wiping it out. And some of the Affordable Care Act’s better-known provisions — like protections for preexisting health conditions — engender even greater support.”
“[Trump] did more than pick at an electoral scab that party strategists hoped had healed by now. He threatened to bring back to life a potent electoral issue that contributed significantly to the GOP’s wipeout in the 2018 midterms and on which public opinion has only moved away from Republicans since.”
Washington Post: “But what’s clear is that an effort to ‘terminate’ Obamacare is not something Americans are pining for. Not only were the GOP’s efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare during Trump’s term historically unpopular, but the law also appears to have gotten more popular since then. … And when politicians talk of ending health insurance for tens of millions of Americans, dropping coverage of preexisting conditions and cutting Obamacare’s Medicaid funding, things get even dicier.”
CNN: “Obamacare has gotten popular. Trump doesn’t care”
Axios: “A new KFF poll underscores why former President Trump reigniting conversation about repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act was probably a bad idea politically … Only 32% of Republican respondents said they think the future of the ACA is a very important issue for 2024 presidential candidates to talk about.”
KFF Poll: 64% believe it is “very important” insurance companies continue to be prohibited from charging sick people more – including 55% of Republicans.
NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll: “Thirteen years after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, more than eight in ten Americans (83%) either agree or strongly agree that all Americans have a basic right to healthcare coverage.”
Bryan Bennett: “Per our October @NavigatorSurvey research, repealing the ACA (and January 6) remain the top concerns about Trump’s first term as president”
The Hill: “Majority of Americans don’t want preexisting condition protections eliminated: poll”
“Even among Republicans, 66 percent of respondents said they did not want to see the preexisting condition protections overturned. Overall, the poll showed 79 percent of respondents do not want the court to cancel coverage protections for Americans with preexisting conditions.”
KFF Poll: “Majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents say it is ‘very important’ to continue each of [the Affordable Care Act’s] protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”
In response to Donald Trump ensuring his legal bills get paid before the RNC gets a cut, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“Only a con man and grifter like Donald Trump would be so brazen as to take campaign donors’ money to pay his mounting legal bills before the financially strapped RNC even gets a cut. His campaign and the RNC are already in financial disarray, and Trump is only making their never-ending problems worse by turning his fundraising operation into a begging cup for his legal debts. It’s admittedly a hard pitch to ask donors to give to Trump’s flailing, off-the-rails disaster of a campaign, but Trump’s no stranger to swindling people out of their money to help himself first. His selfish grifting to pay his debts is just guaranteeing that Republicans will keep putting up horrendous fundraising numbers while losing election after election.”
NEW: Donald Trump is ensuring that his mega-wealthy donors are paying his legal bills before the RNC sees a cent.
Associated Press: “Trump’s invite to major donors prioritizes the committee paying his legal bills over the RNC”
“Donald Trump’s new joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee directs donations to his campaign and a political action committee that pays the former president’s legal bills before the RNC gets a cut, according to a fundraising invitation obtained by The Associated Press.
“The unorthodox diversion of funds to the Save America PAC makes it more likely that Republican donors could see their money go to Trump’s lawyers, who have received at least $76 million over the last two years to defend him against four felony indictments and multiple civil cases. Some Republicans are already troubled that Trump’s takeover of the RNC could shortchange the cash-strapped party.
“Trump has invited high-dollar donors to Palm Beach, Florida, for an April 6 fundraiser that comes as his fundraising is well behind President Joe Biden and national Democrats. The invitation’s fine print says donations to the Trump 47 Committee will first be used to give the maximum amount allowed under federal law to Trump’s campaign. Anything left over from the donation next goes toward a maximum contribution to Save America, and then anything left from there goes to the RNC and then to state political parties.”
“Representatives for the Trump campaign did not respond to messages seeking comment.
“Trump’s handpicked leadership team for the RNC includes his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who is the committee’s co-chair, and Chris LaCivita, who serves effectively as one of two campaign managers for the Trump campaign and is now also taking on a chief of staff role at the RNC.
“Lara Trump in February said she thought Republican voters would like to see the RNC pay Trump’s legal fees.”
“Before Trump was a candidate, the RNC was paying some of his legal bills for cases in New York that began when he was president, The Washington Post reported. Former Chair Ronna McDaniel, who was ousted this month, said in 2022 that the RNC would stop paying once Trump became a candidate.
“The new arrangement doesn’t direct RNC funds to lawyers, but it ensures that when checks are written to the new combined Republican campaign, Trump’s campaign and Save America get paid first.”
Trump and the RNC are in financial disarray after putting up disastrous fundraising numbers.
Associated Press: “Trump’s political operation is struggling to catch up to Biden on fundraising and organization. His main campaign account and the Save America PAC reported raising a combined $15.9 million in February and ended the month with more than $37 million on hand, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission Wednesday night.”
“Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, said his political operation raised $53 million last month and ended February with $155 million on hand. That includes Biden’s joint fundraising with the Democratic National Committee. … His main campaign account raised $21 million in February, according to its latest filing with the FEC, and ended the month with $71 million on hand.”
Politico: “The Republican National Committee raised $10.6 million last month, a total that is unlikely to help the party cut into Democrats’ massive fundraising advantage heading into the general election campaign.”
Washington Post: “Trump lags behind Biden in campaign cash reserves while legal bills mount”
Fox News: “Democrats hold vast fundraising advantage as Republicans face cash problems, disarray in crucial swing states”
“According to year-end reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) this week, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) holds nearly three times the cash on hand reported by the Republican National Committee (RNC), and brought in nearly three times as much fundraising in the final month of 2023.
“The RNC reported its worst fundraising year since 2013 raising just $87.2 million in 2023, and starting 2024 with just over $8 million in cash on hand. If adjusted for inflation, the RNC’s fundraising was last this low in 1993 — before the 2002 McCain Feingold Act restricted political committee fundraising from corporations and capped donations from individuals.”
In response to Donald Trump’s MAGA allies in Congress pushing an extreme budget blueprint based on Trump’s unpopular agenda, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“Donald Trump’s MAGA minions in the House GOP are following Trump’s lead by proposing seemingly the most extreme and overwhelmingly unpopular proposals they could think of – even Republican voters think they’ve gone too far. Their blueprint would rip away basic freedoms, threaten Americans’ pocketbooks and health care, and make our country less safe – and voters across the board want nothing to do with it. Americans continue to make it clear that they want elected officials to protect their hard-earned benefits and safeguard their basic rights, but Trump and MAGA Republicans refuse to listen. Maybe Trump and the GOP will finally get the message this November when voters once again reject their extreme and out-of-touch MAGA agenda.”
The Republican Study Committee’s budget mirrors Donald Trump’s efforts to cut Social Security and Medicare and make Trump’s tax giveaways to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations permanent – all of which is overwhelmingly unpopular with the American people.
Bloomberg: “Republicans Call for Retirement Age Hike in Clash With Biden”
Bloomberg: “The conservative Republican Study Committee is out with a 2025 budget proposal to extend individual and corporate breaks from the 2017 Trump’ tax law.”
Forbes: “Trump Floats ‘Cutting’ Spending On Entitlements Like Social Security And Medicare”
Washington Post: “Each of [Trump’s] White House budget proposals included cuts to Social Security and Medicare programs.”
Fox News: “Fox News Poll: 71% choose funding Social Security, Medicare over budget cuts”
Sahil Kapur, NBC News: “Digging deeper into this @FoxNews finding. Support for funding entitlements like Social Security & Medicare over reducing deficits is overwhelming with the GOP base:
Republicans 59-38%
Trump voters 59-37%
Conservatives 60-36%
Rural voters 70-26%
White non-college voters 73%-24%”
CNN: “Nearly 67 million Americans have received monthly Social Security benefits this year, and more than 66 million people are enrolled in Medicare. Polling shows little support for major changes to the programs themselves to help shore up their finances.
“A March CNN/SSRS poll of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, for instance, found that 59% said it was ‘essential’ that the GOP nominee for president ‘pledges to maintain Social Security and Medicare as they are.’”
Associated Press: “Most oppose Social Security, Medicare cuts: AP-NORC poll”
Axios: “Nearly 9 in 10 Americans say they oppose reducing spending on Social Security or Medicare, according to new polling from our Axios-Ipsos Two Americas Index.”
The RSC’s budget endorses a near-total nationwide abortion ban that would threaten access to IVF across the country, as well as a bill that would ban medication abortion.
Rolling Stone: “House Republicans Endorse National Abortion Ban”
The Hill: “The budget also backs legislation that would put restrictions on abortion, which could threaten in vitro fertilization (IVF).”
Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Semafor: “The House GOP Study Committee (largest House GOP bloc) released a budget endorsing the Life at Conception Act, which would provide 14th amendment legal protections at every stage of life. Amounts to near-total ban on abortions with no IVF exceptions”
Matthew Yglesias, Bloomberg: “In case anyone is still covering the IVF question, today’s new Republican Study Committee budget specifically endorses the idea that embryos have the full legal rights of persons under the 14th Amendment.”
Yglesias: “They’re also backing a bill to ban mifepristone (again, something you could achieve through judicial or executive branch action as well)”
HuffPost: “Donald Trump Has Deep Ties To Anti-IVF Movement”
ABC News: “Americans continue to support IVF and abortion access”
“The vast majority of registered voters, 80 percent, think IVF should be legal.”
Navigator Research: “Large majorities say reproductive care like birth control pills and IVF should be made easier to access, including majorities of Republicans. … Americans across party lines also say access to fertility planning like IVF should be easier to access, including 72 percent of Democrats, 59 percent of independents, and 53 percent of Republicans.”
USA Today: “Americans overwhelmingly oppose the next goal of many anti-abortion activists, to enact a federal law banning abortion nationwide. By 80%-14%, those surveyed opposed that idea, including 65% of Republicans and 83% of independents.”
Axios: “Most Americans support abortion access one year after Roe v. Wade: poll”
CNN: “A 64% majority of US adults say they disapprove of last year’s Supreme Court ruling that women do not have a constitutional right to an abortion, with half strongly disapproving – an assessment that’s almost entirely unchanged from CNN’s poll last July in the immediate wake of the decision.”
As Trump is threatening to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the RSC’s proposed budget would gut the ACA and its protections for over 100 million Americans with preexisting conditions.
Axios: “RSC budget revives conservative health priorities”
“The health care section … calls for killing the Inflation Reduction Act and its drug price provisions. … It would remove many of the Affordable Care Act’s protections for pre-existing conditions.”
Daily Beast: “Trump Revives Plan to Dismantle Obamacare if Elected in 2024”
Axios: “The ACA’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions have proved especially popular, with 79% of Americans — including 66% of Republicans — saying in 2020 that they did not want the Supreme Court to overturn those protections.”
NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll: “Thirteen years after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, more than eight in ten Americans (83%) either agree or strongly agree that all Americans have a basic right to healthcare coverage.”
Bryan Bennett, Navigator Research: “Per our October @NavigatorSurvey research, repealing the ACA (and January 6) remain the top concerns about Trump’s first term as president”
Washington Post: “What’s clear is that an effort to ‘terminate’ Obamacare is not something Americans are pining for. Not only were the GOP’s efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare during Trump’s term historically unpopular, but the law also appears to have gotten more popular since then. … And when politicians talk of ending health insurance for tens of millions of Americans, dropping coverage of preexisting conditions and cutting Obamacare’s Medicaid funding, things get even dicier.”
The Hill: “Majority of Americans don’t want preexisting condition protections eliminated: poll”
“Even among Republicans, 66 percent of respondents said they did not want to see the preexisting condition protections overturned. Overall, the poll showed 79 percent of respondents do not want the court to cancel coverage protections for Americans with preexisting conditions.”
KFF Poll: “Majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents say it is ‘very important’ to continue each of [the Affordable Care Act’s] protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”
The RSC budget would make it easier for dangerous people to get their hands on guns by gutting the “red flag” provisions of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, even though voters overwhelmingly support commonsense gun safety reform.
Daily Caller: “The RSC supports defunding the ‘red flag’ provisions from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, according to the budget proposal.”
Fox News: “Fox News Poll: Voters favor gun limits over arming citizens to reduce gun violence”
Pew Research: “Other gun policy proposals, including banning high-capacity magazines (66%) and banning assault-style weapons (64%), continue to draw majority support.”
Morning Consult: “Voters Maintain Strong, Bipartisan Support for Banning Assault Weapons After Lewiston”
The Hill: “Most Americans say they would support stricter gun control laws: poll”
Approaching the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, DNC spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement:
“If Donald Trump gets his way and repeals the Affordable Care Act, nearly 5 million Americans under the age of 26 could lose their health insurance. Trump’s push to ‘terminate’ the ACA is both extreme and unpopular: He wants to take away coverage from millions of young adults while allowing insurers to discriminate against more than 100 million Americans with preexisting conditions. As Trump urges his fellow MAGA Republicans to ‘never give up’ their cruel efforts to rip away affordable health coverage from hardworking Americans, young voters are ready to stand up for their health care – and against Trump – at the ballot box in November.”
Donald Trump’s push to repeal the Affordable Care Act could leave millions of Americans under the age of 26 without health insurance coverage.
Urban Institute: If the ACA is repealed, nearly 5 million young Americans could lose coverage and become uninsured.
USA Today: “[Trump’s] comments have raised concerns among young voters who are worried about the popular Obamacare provision that guarantees young adults receive health insurance coverage under their parents’ plans until age 26.”
ASPE: “2.5 Million Young Adults Gain Health Insurance Due to the Affordable Care Act”
“From September 2010 to June 2011, the percentage of adults 19 to 25 with insurance coverage increased from 64% to 73%, which translates into 2.5 million additional young adults with coverage.”
Fierce Health Care: “The uninsured rate for Americans ages 19-25 declined from 30% to 16% between 2011 and 2018.”
Americans overwhelmingly support the ACA provision allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26.
KFF polling: 85% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the ACA provision allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26.
KFF polling: 78% of Americans say it’s somewhat or very important to maintain the ACA provision allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26.
The Atlantic: “More than three-fifths of Americans expressed favorable views, while only slightly more than one-third viewed it negatively. Support for individual provisions in the law, such as … the requirement that insurers allow kids to stay on their parents’ plans through age 26, runs even higher in polls.”
Trump is still hellbent on repealing the ACA and ripping away access to affordable care from millions of Americans.
Daily Beast: “Trump Revives Plan to Dismantle Obamacare if Elected in 2024”
Mediaite: “‘OBAMACARE SUCKS!!!’ Trump Rants About New Plan — Years After He Promised It Was ‘Two Weeks’ Away”
HuffPost: “Donald Trump says he is still interested in repealing the Affordable Care Act, which means health care for tens of millions of people would be in jeopardy if he becomes president again next year. Trump said Saturday on his website Truth Social that he was ‘looking at alternatives’ to the 2010 health care law, also known as ‘Obamacare,’ which has reduced the number of Americans without health insurance to historic lows and established basic guarantees of coverage for all Americans regardless of pre-existing conditions.”
Trump: “The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives. We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”
Trump: “Obamacare is a disaster. And I said, ‘We’re gonna do something about it.’”
When he was in office, Trump came up just one vote short in Congress from achieving his goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act.
The Hill: “On the campaign trail, Trump has doubled down on his promise to repeal the ACA, a feat he fell one vote short of in 2017.”
Trump: “I will get health care. I’m one vote short of health care. I’ll get health care.”
Reuters: “The most previous attempt to repeal Obamacare fell one vote short in July, in a humiliating setback for Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.”
Trump and MAGA Republicans’ plan to rip away Americans’ health care is overwhelmingly unpopular among voters.
Politico: “Obamacare is even more popular than the last time Trump tried to kill it”
“Roughly three-in-five Americans like the 2010 health care law, even more than when Trump and Republicans in Congress came to the brink of wiping it out. And some of the Affordable Care Act’s better-known provisions — like protections for preexisting health conditions — engender even greater support.”
“[Trump] did more than pick at an electoral scab that party strategists hoped had healed by now. He threatened to bring back to life a potent electoral issue that contributed significantly to the GOP’s wipeout in the 2018 midterms and on which public opinion has only moved away from Republicans since.”
Washington Post: “But what’s clear is that an effort to ‘terminate’ Obamacare is not something Americans are pining for. Not only were the GOP’s efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare during Trump’s term historically unpopular, but the law also appears to have gotten more popular since then. … And when politicians talk of ending health insurance for tens of millions of Americans, dropping coverage of preexisting conditions and cutting Obamacare’s Medicaid funding, things get even dicier.”
CNN: “Obamacare has gotten popular. Trump doesn’t care”
Axios: “A new KFF poll underscores why former President Trump reigniting conversation about repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act was probably a bad idea politically … Only 32% of Republican respondents said they think the future of the ACA is a very important issue for 2024 presidential candidates to talk about.”
KFF Poll: 64% believe it is “very important” insurance companies continue to be prohibited from charging sick people more – including 55% of Republicans.
NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll: “Thirteen years after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, more than eight in ten Americans (83%) either agree or strongly agree that all Americans have a basic right to healthcare coverage.”
Bryan Bennett: “Per our October @NavigatorSurvey research, repealing the ACA (and January 6) remain the top concerns about Trump’s first term as president”
The Hill: “Majority of Americans don’t want preexisting condition protections eliminated: poll”
“Even among Republicans, 66 percent of respondents said they did not want to see the preexisting condition protections overturned. Overall, the poll showed 79 percent of respondents do not want the court to cancel coverage protections for Americans with preexisting conditions.”
KFF Poll: “Majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents say it is ‘very important’ to continue each of [the Affordable Care Act’s] protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”
“Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans in Congress are campaigning on an agenda that is so toxic with voters you’d think they were trying to lose the election. The American people want more accessible health care, more freedoms, and greater retirement security – but Donald Trump and his MAGA Minions are running to take all of that away. The new MAGA budget blueprint would rip away health care protections from more than 100 million Americans with preexisting conditions, gut Social Security and Medicare for our seniors, and threaten access to IVF for Americans trying to start or grow their family. Americans keep rejecting this extreme, out-of-touch platform at the ballot box, and they’ll do it again this November.”
The Republican Study Committe’s budget proposes raising the retirement age and slashing Social Security and Medicare – which comes after Donald Trump said JUST LAST WEEK “there is a lot you can do” to gut both programs that millions of American families rely on.
Bloomberg: “Republicans Call for Retirement Age Hike in Clash With Biden”
“The largest caucus of House Republicans called for an increase in the Social Security retirement age Wednesday, setting up a clash with President Joe Biden over spending on popular entitlement programs.”
“The Republican Study Committee, which comprises about 80% of House Republicans, called for the Social Security eligibility age to be tied to life expectancy in its fiscal 2025 budget proposal.”
“The Republican Study Committee, meanwhile, called for policy changes that would reduce spending on Social Security by $1.5 trillion and Medicare by $1.2 trillion over the next decade.”
Joe Kernen, CNBC: “Have you changed your outlook on how to handle entitlements, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid?”
[…]
Trump: “So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.”
Vox: “Trump just opened the door to Social Security cuts. Take him seriously.”
Forbes: “Trump Floats ‘Cutting’ Spending On Entitlements Like Social Security And Medicare”
Washington Post: “Each of [Trump’s] White House budget proposals included cuts to Social Security and Medicare programs.”
As Trump is campaigning on repealing the Affordable Care Act, the RSC’s proposed budget threatens to raise drug prices and rip away protections that more than 100 million Americans with preexisting conditions rely on.
Axios: “RSC budget revives conservative health priorities”
“The Republican Study Committee today laid out a budget proposal that suggests a health policy blueprint if the GOP controls the White House and at least one chamber of Congress next year.
“The health care section… calls for killing the Inflation Reduction Act and its drug price provisions. … It would remove many of the Affordable Care Act’s protections for pre-existing conditions.”
Daily Beast: “Trump Revives Plan to Dismantle Obamacare if Elected in 2024”
HuffPost: “Donald Trump says he is still interested in repealing the Affordable Care Act, which means health care for tens of millions of people would be in jeopardy if he becomes president again next year. Trump said Saturday on his website Truth Social that he was ‘looking at alternatives’ to the 2010 health care law, also known as ‘Obamacare,’ which has reduced the number of Americans without health insurance to historic lows and established basic guarantees of coverage for all Americans regardless of pre-existing conditions.”
Spectrum News: “The ACA protects more than 100 million people with preexisting conditions from being denied care, plus it requires insurance plans to cover things like preventive care and limit out-of-pocket costs.”
The RSC’s budget endorses a near-total nationwide abortion ban that would threaten access to IVF nationwide as well as a bill that would ban medication abortion.
Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Semafor: “The House GOP Study Committee (largest House GOP bloc) released a budget endorsing the Life at Conception Act, which would provide 14th amendment legal protections at every stage of life. Amounts to near-total ban on abortions with no IVF exceptions”
Matthew Yglesias, Bloomberg: “In case anyone is still covering the IVF question, today’s new Republican Study Committee budget specifically endorses the idea that embryos have the full legal rights of persons under the 14th Amendment.”
Yglesias: “They’re also backing a bill to ban mifepristone (again, something you could achieve through judicial or executive branch action as well)”
HuffPost: “Donald Trump Has Deep Ties To Anti-IVF Movement”
CNN: “How the reversal of Roe v. Wade led to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children” New York Times: “[The Alabama ruling was] made possible by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in its 2022 Dobbs decision, which was a result of Mr. Trump’s appointment of three justices.”
Key Point: “ … [E]x-advisers, conspiracy theorists and convicted felons are now knocking on the [Trump] campaign’s door — and some are getting in.”
Axios: Trump eyes convicts and conspiracists for 2024 reunion
By: Sophia Cai and Alex Thompson
Sidelined characters from former President Trump’s past campaigns — “crazies,” some of his top advisers call them — are reattaching themselves to his inner circle now that he’s locked up the Republican nomination.
… [E]x-advisers, conspiracy theorists and convicted felons are now knocking on the campaign’s door — and some are getting in. They’re returning as Trump more aggressively touts Jan. 6 rioters as “patriots,” ramps up his racist, incendiary rhetoric — and embraces some of his most provocative loyalists.
Trump’s team is in talks to hire 2016 campaign advisers Paul Manafort and Corey Lewandowski, The Washington Post and The New York Times first reported. Manafort spent two years in prison on a 7½-year sentence for bank and tax fraud before being freed because of the COVID pandemic. Lewandowski, who was fired in 2016 as Trump’s first campaign manager, was removed from a pro-Trump PAC in 2021 after the wife of a major donor accused him of inappropriate behavior.
Longtime political operative and Trump confidant Roger Stone — who was convicted of obstructing a congressional probe into Trump’s 2016 campaign and sentenced to 40 months in prison before Trump commuted the sentence — has been a frequent presence at Mar-a-Lago lately.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) just hired Christina Bobb, a far-right lawyer and former One America News (OAN) anchor who helped Trump promote false allegations that the 2020 election had been stolen. The RNC — now controlled by Trump’s team — brought on Bobb, who has worked in Trump’s 2020 and 2024 campaigns, as senior counsel for “election integrity.”
Trump’s top campaign advisers have dealt with some far-right personalities by directing them to one of the several Trump-aligned PACs, which operate separately from the campaign, two people familiar with the situation tell Axios. Trump maintains warm relationships with them — and has regular phone calls with some, without always telling his advisers beforehand.
In response to Donald Trump saying Republicans should “never give up” on repealing the Affordable Care Act, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“Donald Trump’s orders for his MAGA minions are clear: ‘Never give up’ on trying to rip away affordable health care from millions of Americans. Voters should take Trump at his word when he says he’ll stop at nothing to repeal the Affordable Care Act and undo President Biden’s work to lower health care costs if elected to a second term. The American people made it clear in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023 that they want nothing to do with Trump’s MAGA agenda, and this November will be no different.”
Donald Trump’s orders for his MAGA allies: “We should never give up” on trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Trump’s MAGA minions in Congress are falling in line, reviving efforts to repeal the ACA at Trump’s command.
Press Release, Office of Congressman Mike Johnson: “U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson joined 11 other freshman members of Congress in a letter published Tuesday by Fox News urging the U.S. Senate to act on repealing the Affordable Care Act.”
The Hill: “As chair of the conservative Republican Study Commission, he has backed health care proposals that the GOP has espoused for years, including a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.”
Dana Bash, CNN: “Let’s talk about the 2024 campaign trail. Donald Trump called Obamacare a disaster last night in Iowa after reiterating his calls to repeal it. You of course voted to repeal Obamacare when Trump was president. Do you think that this is a winning issue right now? Would you like to see another vote again?”
Graham: “Yeah. Good question. This is what we tried to do when Trump was president. Let’s block grant the money.”
Axios: “‘I think Obamacare has been one of the biggest deceptions on the American people,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). ‘I mean just look at your health care premiums.’ But he added he would ‘be interested to hear exactly how’ Trump would approach repeal.”
“Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who’s in line to run the Finance Committee if the GOP retakes the Senate, said he’s open to plans that were similar to the 2017 repeal and replace bills.”
If you’re wondering how serious Trump is about ripping away health care from millions of hardworking Americans… take a look at his own statements:
Daily Beast: “Trump Revives Plan to Dismantle Obamacare if Elected in 2024”
The Hill: “In a Truth Social post, the leading GOP presidential candidate claimed he’s ‘seriously looking at alternatives’ to replace ObamaCare, and that the failure to repeal the health law in 2017 while he was in office was ‘a low point for the Republican Party.’”
Mediaite: “‘OBAMACARE SUCKS!!!’ Trump Rants About New Plan — Years After He Promised It Was ‘Two Weeks’ Away”
Voters rejected Trump and his attempts to repeal the ACA because the reality is that the program — which provides protections for over 100 million Americans with preexisting conditions — is extremely popular.
NPR: “The very day President Trump was sworn in — Jan. 20, 2017 — he signed an executive order instructing administration officials ‘to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay’ implementing parts of the Affordable Care Act, while Congress got ready to repeal and replace President Obama’s signature health law.”
Washington Post: “But what’s clear is that an effort to ‘terminate’ Obamacare is not something Americans are pining for. Not only were the GOP’s efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare during Trump’s term historically unpopular, but the law also appears to have gotten more popular since then. … And when politicians talk of ending health insurance for tens of millions of Americans, dropping coverage of preexisting conditions and cutting Obamacare’s Medicaid funding, things get even dicier.”
Washington Post: “More than 21 million people have signed up for health plans through the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces, the Biden administration announced Wednesday. The record level of enrollment comes as former president Donald Trump, seeking the GOP nomination, is again vowing to repeal the program if elected.”
Center for American Progress: “According to new estimates from the Center for American Progress, 135 million people under age 65, or about half of nonelderly people, have a preexisting condition that an insurer could use to discriminate against them if they ever sought coverage through the individual market in the absence of ACA protections.”
KFF Poll: “Majorities of Democrats [88%], Republicans [62%], and independents [73%] say it is ‘very important’ to continue each of [the Affordable Care Act’s] protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”
In response to Donald Trump wisely choosing to spend his time courting voters in such critical constituencies as South Thanet and Rochester and Strood, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“There’s no doubt: This election is going to come down to critical British constituencies like Rochester and Strood or Clacton. That’s why instead of talking with American voters and delivering results for working families like President Biden, Donald Trump is talking to a fellow unpopular extremist who keeps losing (overseas) elections, Nigel Farage. We’ll be the first to admit it: Democrats have no chance to win Oldham West and Royton or Bromley and Chislehurst – we’ll stick to talking to voters in the US about President Biden’s strong record of delivering for them and their families.”
In response to reporting that Vivek Ramaswamy could be Donald Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“Donald Trump’s first term immigration agenda was an inhumane catastrophe, defined by a racist Muslim ban, horrifying images of children in cages, and a cruel policy of systematically ripping families apart. Now, if given the chance in a second term, he’s promising to go even further – and he wants far-right conspiracy theorist Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the charge as head of the Department of Homeland Security. If Ramaswamy is known for anything, it’s pushing a cruel immigration agenda that includes mass deportations, ending the constitutional right to birthright citizenship, and taking away resources from our military to pursue political stunts. The American people want solutions, not fear mongering and hatred. Trump and Ramaswamy are pushing an extreme MAGA agenda that would do nothing to secure our border or fix our immigration system.”
Vivek Ramaswamy’s immigration agenda includes his extreme and possibly unconstitutional plan to end birthright citizenship and deport American-born children of undocumented immigrants.
Ramaswamy: “I want to be very clear about this. I think that birthright citizenship does not and should not apply to the kids of parents who entered this country illegally.”
NBC News: “Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says that as president, he would deport American-born children of undocumented immigrants. ‘The family unit will be deported,’ said Ramaswamy when asked by NBC News if the deportations would include American-born children, after a packed town hall here Friday.”
Ramaswamy has even pushed for redirecting resources away from our military to the southern border.
Bret Baier: “Mr. Ramaswamy, you would not support an increase of funding to Ukraine?”
Ramaswamy: “I would not and I think that this is disastrous that we’re protecting against an invasion across somebody else’s border when we should use those same military resources to prevent across the invasion of our own southern border here in the United States of America.”
Ramaswamy wants to mass deport entire families.
Interviewer: “You said you want to deport the entire family unit of undocumented immigrants.”
Ramaswamy: “Yes, entire family unit.”
Ramaswamy wants to eliminate the H-1B visa system for skilled workers, even though his own company frequently utilized and benefited from the program.
Ramaswamy: “[The H-1B system is] bad for everyone involved. … The lottery system needs to be replaced by actual meritocratic admission. It’s a form of indentured servitude that only accrues to the benefit of the company that sponsored an H-1B immigrant. I’ll gut it.”
Politico: “GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has vowed to ‘gut’ the system for H-1B temporary worker visas if he wins the White House. It’s the very system he’s used in the past to hire high-skilled foreign workers for the pharma company that built much of his wealth. From 2018 through 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved 29 applications for Ramaswamy’s former company, Roivant Sciences, to hire employees under H-1B visas, which allow U.S. companies to employ foreign workers in tech and other specialized jobs.”
The Department of Homeland Security was established in the wake of 9/11 – meanwhile, Ramaswamy has repeatedly entertained dangerous 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Politico: “Ramaswamy: I ‘don’t believe’ the 9/11 Commission report”
NBC News: “Vivek Ramaswamy suggests ‘the truth’ about 9/11 is still unknown”
Fox News: “Vivek Ramaswamy on 9/11: ‘I don’t believe the government has told us the truth’”
NBC News: “While visiting the Sept. 11. memorial Monday in Lower Manhattan, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said he stands by the comments he had made regarding the terrorist attacks in a recent interview. ‘So today’s not the day to talk about the comments I made, which I stand by. But it is important to have a government that tells the truth to its people, that people can trust, and trust its people back,’ he said while attending the Fire Department of New York’s pipe and drum tribute at Station 10.”
