(Slate) — The health insurance bill passed by House Republicans on Thursday is a gut punch to the working people who elected President Trump. It whacks Medicaid, cuts insurance subsidies, and raises premiums and out-of-pocket costs to fund a tax cut for the rich. How do Republicans defend this atrocity? With aplomb. Four Trump surrogates—White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, and House Speaker Paul Ryan—fanned out on the Sunday shows to answer criticisms of the bill. Here’s what they said.
1. It’s better than nothing, and Obamacare is nothing. At his rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a week ago, Trump jeered that Democrats and the media “always like to compare” Trumpcare to Obamacare, but they can’t, because “Obamacare is dead. It’s gone. … So they can’t compare something to it, because it won’t be there very long, believe me.” That’s the main pitch from Trump’s minions: Obamacare is finished, so you’ll have to settle for whatever we offer.
On the Sunday shows, Trump’s surrogates gave this answer to every complaint about Trumpcare. On Fox News Sunday, Priebus called the debate “a binary choice between what we know is a collapsing system, offering no options, no coverage,” and a GOP alternative “that offers coverage.”
