After Donald Trump’s healthcare bill was shut down in Congress three weeks ago, he has been forced to reconsider his promise to dismantle ObamaCare, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This leaves everyone to wonder, what’s next? Will Trump create a new healthcare bill or try to push his first bill through Congress again? Will he let the issue go? Or will he try to bargain his way into a new healthcare system?
According to The New York Times, Politico, Breitbart and MarketPlace, Trump has opted to use a business bargaining trick to persuade congressional democrats to back his bill. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump stated a plan to withhold healthcare subsidy payments until democrats agree to work with him on this bill.
By withholding healthcare subsidies, Trump is denying seven million people affordable health care. These seven million individuals include children, covered by Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and low income individuals covered by Medicaid.
There are millions of people who rely on these programs to receive the medication they need to survive. By refusing to pay these subsidies, Trump is using his position as president to bargain the lives of human beings so he can get his way. That is beyond ridiculous.
One democrat, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, put it eloquently when he said, “President Trump is threatening to hold hostage health care for millions of Americans, many of whom voted for him, to achieve a political goal of repeal that would take healthcare away from millions more.”
As of now, congressional Democrats have remained unfazed by Trump’s threat. Many, such as Missouri’s senator Claire McCaskill, are using Trump’s poorly planned attack to rouse their own party into action. During a town-hall-style meeting in Missouri, McCaskill even stated that “Republicans are in control of government. If they blow up what access to health care there is right now, they’re going to own it.”
But on top of the obvious opposition Democrats are showing, many Republicans are demonstrating reservations about Trump’s approach. House Representative Justin Amash, a republican from Michigan, stated, “Let’s start over in a bipartisan way. We should have worked with Democrats from the very beginning. At the end of the day, you cannot pass legislation, whether it’s the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or a new healthcare proposal, that affects so many people and not have it be bipartisan.”
The simple fact of the matter is that Trump is under the impression that his position as president gives him the right to use human lives as bargaining chips. The people covered by government health care subsidies are not getting an unnecessary handout; they are being granted basic healthcare so they can survive in a world where Trump can take several three million dollar trips to Florida. Trump doesn’t grasp the effects his childish antics will have on actual human beings, and if he does, there is nothing a little political opposition can do to save them.
