Exactly 12 years ago, congressional Republicans followed Sen. Ted Cruz’s lead and shut down the federal government for one reason: health care. At the time, the Texas senator and his colleagues believed a shutdown offered one last opportunity to derail the Affordable Care Act before it was fully implemented.
Two weeks later, after the Obama White House and congressional Democrats refused to pay Cruz’s ransom, GOP officials grudgingly accepted reality and retreated.
Twelve years later, health care policy has led to another shutdown, but the circumstances are largely reversed: In 2025, unlike in 2013, it’s Democrats who are fighting to protect the ACA from a Republican majority that’s already taken steps to sabotage the system known as Obamacare, and Republicans are prepared to make things worse by allowing new price hikes to take effect in the coming weeks.
Summarizing the dispute, the editorial board of The New York Times explained, “What the two parties are fighting about is whether Americans should have access to affordable health care. President Trump is seeking to deprive millions of Americans of their health insurance, and Senate Democrats are refusing to acquiesce.”
So, with just hours remaining before the shutdown deadline, the president made fresh comments about the existing system.
Trump threatens to repeal the Affordable Care Act:"Obamacare is not a good thing. It's been bad… We could come up with a new system"
— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) 2025-09-30T17:01:02.00588247Z
“Obamacare is not a good thing. It’s been bad,” Trump said, deriding the popular and effective health care reform law. He added that he’s told congressional Democrats, “We could come up with a new system that would be much better.”
The comments came a few months after the president also said he and his party had “a chance to actually do a health care that is much better than Obamacare.”
By all appearances, he has no idea why this is laughable.
About a year ago, during a presidential debate, ABC News’ Linsey Davis reminded Trump that he’d “long vowed to repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. She then asked, “So tonight, nine years after you first started running, do you have a plan, and can you tell us what it is?”
The Republican meandered for a while — he claimed to have “saved” the ACA during his first term, which was a brazen lie — before assuring voters that he and his team are “working on things.”
Asked in a follow-up question whether he has a plan to replace Obamacare or not, Trump replied, “I have concepts of a plan.” He added that Americans should expect to hear more about this “in the not-too-distant future.”
We’re still waiting.
We’ve been waiting for quite a while. In mid-July 2020, for example, as part of his re-election campaign, Trump appeared on Fox News and said, “We’re signing a health care plan within two weeks, a full and complete health care plan.” As regular readers might recall, two weeks went by, and the “full and complete” health care plan was nowhere to be found. As July 2020 neared its end, the then-president was pressed for some kind of explanation. He told reporters, “We’re going to be doing a very inclusive health care plan. I’ll be signing it sometime very soon. It might be Sunday [Aug. 2], but it’s going to be very soon.” On Aug. 3, 2020, Trump presented a new timeline: “I do want to say that we’re going to be introducing a tremendous health care plan sometime prior — hopefully, prior to the end of the month. It’s just about completed now.” August 2020, of course, came and went without the emergence of the elusive plan. In mid-September 2020, the then-president balked at the idea that he was failing to follow through on his promise. “I have it all ready. I have it all ready,” Trump told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, adding, “I have it all ready.” He did not have it all ready. A month later, the Republican told CBS News’ Lesley Stahl his health care blueprint would be “announced very soon.” After Trump abruptly ended the interview, then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany handed the “60 Minutes” anchor a thick binder that she said included the White House health care plan. It did not. That was five years ago this month. Keep this in mind as Trump, apparently indifferent to appearances, declares, “We could come up with a new system that would be much better.” This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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