Campaign Action
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy teamed up with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham to create the very worst of the still-standing "replacement" plans for Obamacare, and he's still trying to make it happen. That means Cassidy must keep popular vote loser Donald Trump on his side. That also means lying like a rug about the damage Trump is inflicting on innocent Americans with his sabotage efforts.
"If you take the totality of what the president did, I think it actually helps the family," Cassidy said on "Fox News Sunday."
The Republican said Trump created an opportunity for Congress to address an "unconstitutional" requirement, and he believes "Congress should pass that short-term extension" of the payments.
"And that's exactly what the president is asking," he said. "But we absolutely have to think about that family around the kitchen table, which is why I think Congress should pass them. Republicans have been trying to do so, but with flexibility so that premiums go down."
The "flexibility" Cassidy is referring to is the ability for states to decide that insurers might not have to provide insurance to people with pre-existing conditions, or maybe that they don't have to cover all the essential benefits one expects insurance to have. That's the demand Republicans are making of Democrats in passing a guarantee that the cost savings reduction payments Trump has ended will be paid. In other words, they expect Democrats to compromise to make the Trump administration uphold the law instead of flouting it.
Premiums will not go down. The Congressional Budget Office has debunked that one repeatedly. It's a basic thing about how health insurance works that was the whole basis of our system before Obamacare. Not covering everyone equally causes premiums to skyrocket for people who have to use insurance. That's just what happens.
But that's good for "the family," Cassidy says. He's lying.