Friday, June 23, 2017

What did Donald Trump do today?

He claimed the Senate version of his Obamacare repeal bill would not affect anyone currently on Medicaid, which is false.

At today's untelevised briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer said that Trump was "committed to making sure that no one who currently is in the Medicaid program is affected in any way, which is reflected in the Senate bill, and he's pleased with that."

Trump is "committed" to keeping Medicaid unchanged in more ways than one: as a candidate, he claimed he was the only Republican who would "save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts," and contrasted his supposed hands-off approach with Hillary Clinton, who he said would "knock the hell out of" Medicaid and other entitlement programs--and that Clinton's promises to the contrary were lies.

The Senate bill drastically reduces funding for Medicaid, and would absolutely affect current enrollees, not least by kicking many of them out of the program by 2023 and forcing states to drop even more for lack of funding. 

So what?

  • When candidate Trump told voters he wasn't going to cut Medicaid, they may have thought that meant he wasn't going to cut Medicaid.
  • Presidents are entitled to whatever policy views they like, but they're not entitled to lie about them.