March 27, 2019

Republicans Are Privately Begging Trump to Drop His New Effort to Kill Obamacare

The president, unsurprisingly, appears to be ignoring his party’s concerns.

Carol Guzy/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

The Trump administration’s latest effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which now seeks to completely invalidate the landmark healthcare law, has confounded many. Why would President Donald Trump reignite the very battle that was seen as one of the primary reasons Republicans lost the House in last year’s midterms? 

That confusion apparently extends to his fellow Republican leaders. On Wednesday, Axios reported that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy phoned the president to tell him that the newest plan to go after Obamacare made no sense, and that it would likely cost them politically in upcoming elections. McCarthy’s warning comes on the heels of a similar report that two of Trump’s Cabinet members, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Attorney General William Barr, also disagreed with the president’s plan.

Despite the opposition, in remarks from the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump again expressed his commitment to his administration’s boldest move yet to go after the Affordable Care Act. “We are going to be the Republicans, the party of great healthcare,” Trump told reporters. “The Democrats, they’ve let you down. They came up with Obamacare, it’s terrible.”

He also appeared to take credit for somehow improving the healthcare law.

But while Republicans may privately object to the president’s plan, Democrats are outspoken in their reactions to Trump’s remarks. As Mother Jones explained, the administration’s announcement that it would support the elimination of the Affordable Care Act will likely make it even easier for Democratic 2020 candidates to demonstrate that Trump and Republicans have worked endlessly to destroy the ever-increasingly popular healthcare law.

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate