A coalition of liberal and progressive advocacy groups will be fighting to save Obamacare and simultaneously blaming presidential popular vote-loser Donald Trump for betraying his own voters.
"There will be a common critique that Trump is betraying his voters by putting big corporations against the needs of everyday working families, and that will extend to Obamacare," said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. […]
On Friday, a new group calling itself The Protect Our Care Coalition called on Trump and Congress "to stop their reckless sprint to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and show how they will provide more affordable and meaningful care, coverage and consumer protections than the law currently provides."
The coalition of health-care and social and economic justice organizations also said that it will pool the resources of its member groups "and work together to ensure people in America understand the damage of repealing the ACA."
"Congress should not take away the promise of future coverage without simultaneously voting on a plan that guarantees people will have health and financial security," the coalition said.
It's not just Obamacare, clearly, that Republicans are getting ready to destroy—Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid are on the chopping block as well. Every one of these programs is critical to Trump voters. Not to Trump's billionaire cabinet, but to the people who put him in office. The coalition intends to highlight that with actions throughout Republican states and districts and potential television ad campaigns.
Retiring Democratic Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who will be part of the effort, explains "if you poll people on the consumer benefits of the Affordable Care Act, they’re wildly popular. So the Republicans are jammed. They cannot repeal and replace Obamacare without taking away those consumer benefits. When they take away those consumer benefits, public opinion will turn drastically against them." That's what Republicans have to be reminded of.
It won't hurt to remind Democrats of that, either. They're going into the next year united in refusing to help Republicans either repeal the law or try to clean up the mess afterward. Holding Democrats to that pledge to let Republicans own this and continue to refuse to intervene is going to be a challenge for a party that actually cares about people's lives, but they have to stick to it. They have to let Republicans beat themselves in the next few elections.