At least one Republican member of Congress has called out Trump’s plan to sabtotage the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") by eliminating the subsidies that keep the program alive and keep millions of Americans insured. In doing so, she confirmed that Trump lied to the American people all along about his intentions:
A Republican lawmaker slammed President Trump's action on health care subsidies on Friday, saying it is the "opposite" of what he promised.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said that cutting key payments to ObamaCare insurers will mean more of her constituents will be uninsured.
"POTUS promised more access, affordable coverage," Ros-Lehtinen tweeted. "This does opposite."
This late-breaking change of heart is yet another example of a Republican actually levelling with the American people when it can’t affect her prospects for re-election. Ros-Lehtinen is retiring. She voted at least five times to repeal Obamacare, along with her Republican colleagues, effectively enabling this wretched idea of denying Americans health care in the first place. What exactly was she thinking when she cast those votes? There was no “replacement plan” in place then, either. When the Republicans finally came up with a plan, the CBO scored it as kicking 23 million Americans out of affordable health insurance. And guess who voted for it? Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
Didn’t she know that the “repeal” that she voted for would have resulted in exactly what Trump is doing now?
What is her excuse? That she didn’t read or understand the bills she was voting for? That she actually trusted Trump to do the right thing? Either way, it suggests she was never competent (or honest) enough to serve in the first place.
But for her constituents, it’s too late.
It’s nice that Republicans in Congress are finally getting around to admitting that Trump is a liar, hell-bent on taking Americans’ health care away, but they certainly don’t deserve any credit for this sudden “epiphany," particularly when it conveniently comes at a time when they have nothing personal to lose.
They’re the ones who enabled him. And now it looks like a whole lot of Americans are going to suffer the consequences.