President Trump and the republican party's repeated lies about the ACA and their own health care plan give conservative opinion writers like Morris fits in their attempt to keep justifying and explaining where the President and the party stands. It has become a regular merry-go-round.
Morris's opinion column in the Times Picayune of May 7 titled, "Now its time for the Senate to save the health care overhaul" was a good try to cover all the bases. He finally acknowledged the health care plan passed by the republican controlled House last Thursday was an attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare in the worst way and that is pretty much what they did. The House proposal was about taking down Obamacare and the plan did not meet Trump's campaign pledge of (1) That no one would lose insurance, (2) Medicaid will not be cut and (3) no one will be worst off financially. (We will come back to that later)
Morris dabbled with fake news in his column when he said, "that people dislike the democrats ACA. Actually, the latest poll shows 62% approve of the ACA. He also thinks the Senate will do a better job when they take up the health care issue and keep Trump's campaign pledge. Morris says Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy is fast becoming a leader on health care but Cassidy supports the same problem as the HOuse with pre-existing conditions being turned over to the states to implement and finance. Republican Governor of Ohio John Kasich said that was laughable and would not work.
The column is a contradiction and with out realizing it, Morris makes the case for keeping the ACA because it is working. He makes this statement, "Whatever problems existed in Obamacare could have been addressed in changes without the need for complete repeal." Of course that was Hillary Clinton's proposal during the campaign to make changes where needed and make the ACA better. Morris being an opinion writer knew Clinton's position very well but would never give her the credit due. Then in another paragraph Morris tells us the Senate plan can focus on REPLACING the ACA with something that keeps Trump's campaign pledge.
Morris also has a problem in his column about Trump's campaign pledge on health care. He forgot to mention that Trump disregarded the pledge himself when he urged the House to pass their health care plan even though he knew the plan did not even address his pledge. It was pure fraud. Trump also failed to produce his own health care plan that he said he had during the campaign and then after being elected President said he would introduce his plan in early March. But it never happened. Fake news and lies are the real story behind Trump and the republicans health care pronouncements.
The ACA has all the safe guards that Trump pledged and much more, ditto pre-existing conditions, ditto Medicaid expansion for the states, non discrimination in premiums, has insured over 15,000,000 Americans and still counting, has become an economic engine as reported just in the last week and so many other positive advantages. Hillary Clinton had the right approach during the campaign but the republicans and Trump calculated that the lies and fake news about her emails would make better copy.
Next to Morris's opinion column was a picture of Trump, Paul Ryan and Steve Scalise standing together in the Rose Garden celebrating the House passage of their health care plan with a big smile and gloating. They celebrated the passage of a bill that did nothing to address a problem that they themselves said existed. It is a picture of a President, a Speaker of the House and the House Whip. ALL POSITIONS OF AUTHORITY AND LEADERSHIP WHO FAILED BIG TIME TO LEAD AND GOVERN. The country and its people deserve better.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
