Donald Trump’s vile lie about immigrants eating pets in Ohio may be the most headline-grabbing (and meme-generating) statement from Tuesday night’s presidential debate. But it wasn’t the most shocking.
Eight years after he campaigned on a promise to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, Trump was questioned about his plan to replace the legislation that now provides crucial health care to a record 50 million Americans—and Trump admitted that he still has no plan. He’s never had a plan. He has only the “concepts of a plan.”
What Trump means by “concepts” isn’t clear. What is clear is that Trump has been eager to put the lives and health of millions of Americans at risk to satisfy his long-simmering hatred for Barack Obama, who shepherded the 2010 act known as Obamacare in an effort to provide affordable health care to all Americans .
During a closely watched presidential debate, Trump admitted that the issue he has run on for three straight elections is a mere talking point backed by nothing.
“We are working on things,” Trump said. “We’re going to do it. We’re going to replace it.”
Asked about these statements on Wednesday morning, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN that Trump would produce a health care plan “in the not too distant future.”
“I don’t have a date for you this morning,” Leavitt said, “but I’ll definitely get back to you with one as soon as I can.”
Leavitt tossed in some claims that Trump’s plan would be based on the “free market.” Which is strange for her to say, because Trump doesn’t have a plan.
Trump’s embarrassing admission doesn’t just show a yawning gap in his policies: It underscores that Trump has no actual plans. He’s simply been lying since 2015, when he sailed down a golden escalator on a wave of racism and hate to announce he was running for president.
In 2016, replacing the Affordable Care Act wasn’t just one item on Trump’s to-do list—it was the core of his campaign.
“We’re going to deliver real change that once again puts America first,” Trump told a Florida rally crowd three weeks before the 2016 election. “That begins with immediately repealing and replacing the disaster known as Obamacare. … My first day in office, I’m going to ask Congress to put a bill on my desk … We’re going to have such great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost, and it’s going to be so easy.”
Republicans did write a bill that would have repealed the Affordable Care Act. They just never got around to the “replace” part—because Trump never came up with a plan.
Even a year after Sen. John McCain’s brave vote saved the plan from destruction, Trump was still scheming to destroy Obamacare while having no more than a sketchy idea of what came next.
As the Los Angeles Times reported in 2018:
Donald Trump has at various times promised a healthcare plan that would be “beautiful,” “terrific” and “unbelievable.”
But the healthcare outline his campaign released Wednesday mostly highlights standard, if vague, Republican proposals, several of which conservatives themselves say will have little impact on patients’ health or their pocketbooks.
As Stat reports, Trump’s past defeats on the Affordable Care Act have been embarrassing, but he “just can’t seem to let the prospect” of killing the plan go. He’s still focused on attacking the ACA even though the plan has brought health care protections to a record number of Americans and now enjoys broad public support.
Trump’s obsessive attacks on Obamacare and his open admission that he has never developed an alternative are now an absolute negative for his campaign and for the GOP in general. As Stat notes, it’s creating uncertainty for Republicans—who are left with Trump’s “concepts” as their only plan—and for a health care industry that doesn’t have a clue what might be coming its way.
Still, Trump remains willing to rip away the health care of 50 million Americans with no replacement to offer—a level of vindictive recklessness that's hard to imagine.
Claiming that Haitian immigrants are eating pets might be the most memorable Trump blunder of the evening, but the statement about health care shows how fundamentally hollow his promises have always been.
Help make sure Trump never gets another chance to swing a wrecking ball at America’s healthcare by sending $10 to the Harris/Walz campaign today.
