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News Friday, Apr 28 2017

100 Days – Donald Trump’s Biggest Broken Promises

Apr 28, 2017

During his first 100 days as president, the rate at which Donald Trump has broken the most significant campaign promises he made to the American people on the campaign trail already makes him the most dishonest president in history.

In those 100 days, Trump has tried to force American taxpayers to finance a wall between the United States and Mexico that he assured voters he could persuade Mexico to pay for, flip-flopped on labelling China a “currency manipulator,” and broken his promise to American workers that the Keystone XL pipeline would be built with American-made steel.

Trump also repeatedly told the country that he was a preeminent negotiator and manager, and yet his administration in in turmoil and he has struggled to negotiate with his own party to even keep the government open.

But no issue embodies Donald Trump’s alarming track record as a scam artist living in the White House more than healthcare.

When Trump asked for Americans’ support and their votes, he promised that he would repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a law that would:

  • Cover “everybody”

  • Make healthcare cheaper

  • Not cut Medicaid

  • Preserve the Affordable Care Act’s guarantee of coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions

Instead of fulfilling his healthcare promises to the country, Trumpcare, shatters them all. And polls from the last month prove that voters are dismayed and strongly opposed to his attempt to gut healthcare in America.

“The foundation of Donald Trump’s appeal to voters was that he would improve the lives of Americans who were getting a raw deal,” said American Bridge President Jessica Mackler. “But instead Trump spent his first 100 days in office racing to enact a perverse agenda that takes healthcare away from the Americans he called ‘the forgotten men and women’ and gut health coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions. His disgraceful ‘reverse Robinhood’ agenda couldn’t be more the opposite of what he sold us.”

HEALTHCARE

Repeal and Replace the Affordable Care Act

Donald Trump promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act “immediately.”

  • Donald Trump, 11/1/2016: “When we win on November 8th and elect a Republican Congress, we will be able to immediately repeal and replace Obamacare. I will ask Congress to convene a special session.”

He didn’t – even much later.

  • Reuters, 3/25/2017: “President Donald Trump suffered a stunning political setback on Friday in a Congress controlled by his own party when Republican leaders pulled legislation to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system…”

 

Give healthcare coverage to “everybody”

Donald Trump promised his replacement for the Affordable Care Act would provide health insurance for “everybody.”

  • Donald Trump, 6/16/2015: “We have to repeal Obamacare, and it can be— and— and it can be replaced with something much better for everybody. Let it be for everybody.”

But the Congressional Budget Office and the White House’s own Office of Management and Budget estimate that Trumpcare would take health coverage from over 20 million Americans.

  • Congressional Budget Office, 3/13/2017: “CBO and JCT estimate that, in 2018, 14 million more people would be uninsured under the legislation than under current law….Later, following additional changes to subsidies for insurance purchased in the nongroup market and to the Medicaid program, the increase in the number of uninsured people relative to the number under current law would rise to 21 million in 2020 and then to 24 million in 2026.”
  • Politico, 3/13/2017: “…The preliminary analysis from the Office of Management and Budget forecast that 26 million people would lose coverage over the next decade…”

 

Improve healthcare and make it cheaper

Donald Trump promised that his Obamacare replacement would make healthcare “better” and more affordable.

  • Donald Trump, 11/1/2016: “It will be much better health care, at a much less expensive cost.”

But Trumpcare would make healthcare harder to afford for millions of Americans, and slash it’s quality

Costs:

  • American Medical Association, 3/8/2017: “By replacing income-based premium subsidies with age-based tax credits, the AHCA will also make coverage more expensive – if not out of reach – for poor and sick Americans.”
  • American Nurses Association, ​3/8/2017: The American Health Care Act threatens health care affordability, access, and delivery for individuals across the nation.
  • Kaiser Family Foundation, 3/10/2017: “For current marketplace enrollees, the American Health Care Act would provide substantially lower tax credits overall than the ACA on average. People who are lower income, older, or live in high premium areas would be particularly disadvantaged under the American Health Care Act.

Quality:

  • American Medical Association, 4/27/2017: “The MacArthur Amendment would allow states to apply for waivers from critical consumer protections provided in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including the age rating ratio of 3 to 1, the requirements that health insurers must cover certain essential health benefits, and the ban on health status underwriting.”

 

Cover Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions

Donald Trump promised to keep covering individuals with pre-existing medical conditions.

  • Donald Trump, 2/26/2016: “I just want to say, I agree with that 100 percent, except pre-existing conditions, I would absolutely get rid of Obamacare. We’re going to have something much better, but pre-existing conditions, when I’m referring to that, and I was referring to that very strongly on the show with Anderson Cooper, I want to keep pre-existing conditions. I think we need it. I think it’s a modern age. And I think we have to have it.”

But Trumpcare would cripple health coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions.

  • American Medical Association, 4/27/2017: “We are particularly concerned about allowing states to waive this requirement because it will likely lead to patients losing their coverage. Although the MacArthur Amendment states that the ban on preexisting conditions remains intact, this assurance may be illusory as health status underwriting could effectively make coverage completely unaffordable to people with preexisting conditions.”
  • New York Times, 4/20/2017: “The proposal retains the health law’s promise that people with pre-existing health conditions can still buy insurance. But the protection would be largely technical. States could waive a closely related rule that requires insurers to charge the same prices to healthy and sick customers of the same age.”
  • Vox, 4/20/2017: “Insurers could charge sick people more and cover fewer benefits….It means that states could, for example, end the essential health benefits requirement because they believe it will lower premium costs. And of course it would!”

 

No cuts to Medicaid

Donald Trump promised he wouldn’t cut Medicaid.

  • Donald Trump, 6/16/2015: “Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it.”

But Trumpcare would cut nearly $900 billion from Medicaid.

  • Congressional Budget Office, 3/13/2017:  “A reduction of $880 billion in federal outlays for Medicaid”

 

THE WALL

Have Mexico pay for the wall

Donald Trump promised to build a wall between the United States and Mexico that Mexico would finance.

  • Donald Trump, 6/16/2015: “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.”

But Trump tried to make American taxpayers pay for the wall.

  • NBC News, 4/25/2017: “President Donald Trump has indicated that he’s willing to back away from his demand that a government funding bill include money to build a wall on the Southern border, a move that could help clear the way for Congress to avoid a shutdown.”

 

CHINA

Label China a “currency manipulator”

Donald Trump promised to label China a currency manipulator on his first day in office.

  • Politico, 11/10/15: “Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pledged Tuesday to declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office, breaking with at least 20 years of presidential restraint in that area to force Beijing to the negotiating table.”

He didn’t, and months later he flip-flopped.

  • New York Times, 4/14/2017: “The Treasury Department officially declined on Friday to label China a currency manipulator, breaking one of President Trump’s most prominent campaign promises.”

 

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE

American-made steel

Donald Trump promised that as president he would guarantee oil pipelines were only made with American steel.

  • Fox News, 3/3/2017: “Trump said as recently as last week that Keystone and the Dakota Access pipeline must use American steel ‘or we’re not building one.’”

 

But he lied.

  • Fox News, 3/3/2017: “Keystone pipeline won’t use US steel despite Trump pledge”

 

  • Fortune, 3/4/2017: “The Keystone XL oil pipeline will not use American-produced steel for its construction, despite President Donald Trump’s insistence that it would.”

Published: Apr 28, 2017

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