With time running out before inflexible deadlines, the political fight over the Affordable Care Act has come into sharp focus: Tens of millions of American consumers are poised to face vastly more expensive health care premiums unless Republicans act. Barring a breakthrough, families nationwide will soon have to choose between paying far more or going without.
A week ago, when Donald Trump sat down with Politico’s Dasha Burns, the reporter tried to help set the stage for the president. “So right now, people are buying their holiday presents,” she noted after referring to the fight over Obamacare premiums. “They’re planning their budgets …”
Trump interrupted her midsentence. “Look, don’t be dramatic,” he said, before again telling Burns: “Don’t be dramatic.”
The president’s response suggested that as far as he’s concerned, to be worried about American families and their health care costs is necessarily to be histrionic about a problem he prefers to overlook.
As the week neared its end, Trump reiterated his indifference.
“At the end of this year, those extended Obamacare subsidies expire,” a reporter asked the president. “What’s your message to those 24 million Americans who will see their insurance premiums go up?”
Trump replied, “Don’t make it sound so bad,” before attacking the journalist’s integrity.
In other words, as Americans continue to struggle with affordability and the cost of living, and as they face health care coverage costs that are poised to double or triple, the incumbent president could present a solution. Barring that, he might at least try expressing some semblance of empathy.
Instead, four days after dismissing a question about this as “dramatic,” Trump suggested that he would appreciate it if reporters didn’t make the brutal choices tens of millions of consumers are facing “sound so bad.” The rhetoric was surprisingly callous, especially given the circumstances, but it was also of little help to Republicans on Capitol Hill. GOP leaders, eager to follow the president’s lead, have spent the past several weeks looking to the White House for leadership and guidance. Trump has responded with shrugged shoulders. Part of his hands-off posture is the result of his own illiteracy on health care policy, and part of it is the result of learned experience: The White House recently intended to unveil a plan to address the problem, but officials pulled the plug when congressional Republicans balked at the proposed solution. But the other piece of this puzzle is even more jarring: As policymakers reach deadlines they have seen coming for months, Trump simply doesn’t appear to care. 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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