The Office of Management and Budget director is not usually a high-profile administration official. It can be an important role, but it’s usually someone only wonks know much about. Mick Mulvaney is out to change all that—in true Trump fashion he seems to be trying for the title of most viral OMB director ever. It’s unlikely he can top saying that feeding children and the elderly is not “showing any results,” but his Friday morning defense of eliminating requirements that insurance plans cover maternity care shows that he’s putting in the effort.
In an interview on CBS This Morning, Mulvaney said that whether insurance plans were required to cover essential health benefits should be left up to the states. And if you don’t live in a state with those requirements, meh, that’s your problem:
"Then you can figure out a way to change the state that you live in," Mulvaney replied.
Wagner asked if Mulvaney meant that people should move.
"No, they can try to change their own state legislatures and their state laws," he responded. "Why do we look to the federal government to try and fix our local problems?"
From your lips to God’s ears on changing state legislatures and state laws, buddy, but how on earth is national healthcare policy a local problem? It’s not like women in Alabama somehow get pregnant differently than women in California.
This is a dodge, of course, because Mulvaney knows that in a lot of states, anyone seeking to change will run straight into a buzzsaw of Republican gerrymandering and Koch money. But it’s a useful challenge—people who oppose the Trump agenda absolutely should be organizing at the state level. That’s where Republicans built their advantage and it’s where we need to turn the tide.
In the mean time, though, it’s Trumpcare day in the House. (Again.)
Let's make this failure complete. The vote is happening TODAY. Even if you already called your member of Congress, do it again by calling the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Jam the phone lines, urge them to vote NO.
