Day 796: GOP tries sinister new tactic to kick millions off healthcare
Trump DOJ ignores own rules to try and gut Obamacare
Republicans failed to jam through a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017. (The GOP claimed for years that they would come up with an incredible something to replace the ACA with, but no real proposal that would provide healthcare either a) for more people or b) more cost effectively has ever been seen.)
Looking for other ways to accomplish their endeavor to get rid of the ACA — frequently known as Obamacare — the Donald Trump White House is suddenly refusing to defend the entire law in court.
A federal judge found that because Republicans scrubbed part of the ACA legislatively, the entire law now failed to pass constitutional muster. While the DOJ had claimed that the protections on pre-existing conditions were unconstitutional while arguing the matter, they have now pivoted to the judge’s position that the entire law is. (The ACA has already been challenged on numerous grounds and the Supreme Court has already found that part of the ACA was not unconstitutional.)
The Department of Justice’s decision flies in the face of centuries of practice. As an opinion memorandum on the DOJ’s website freely states:
The Department of Justice has a duty to defend the constitutionality of an Act of Congress whenever a reasonable argument can be made in its support, even if the Attorney General concludes that the argument may ultimately be unsuccessful in the courts. The statute at issue in the instant case could be held constitutional as applied in certain situations, and accordingly the Department will defend it.
The Trump DOJ is choosing to completely ignore that memo, despite that fact that they have already offered up a defense on the ACA on multiple occasions, proving that a “reasonable argument can be made in its support.”
The scariest part is that the DOJ’s actions are akin to simply not enforcing a law that the White House has a political disagreement with.
The ACA appeal of the federal judge’s opinion heads to the most conservative appellate court in the country, the Fifth Circuit, where the federal government will not even be offering a defense. From there, if the judgment is affirmed, it appears very likely that the Supreme Court takes up the matter and offer some finality on the matter.
If the Trump DOJ is successful in its endeavor in seeing the ACA be ruled unconstitutional, millions of Americans will be booted off health care plans, either for having pre-existing conditions, hitting a lifetime cap or any number of other reasons. Additionally, the DOJ will have sullied its name and reputation by failing to defend a law that their own rules and history say they have an obligation to stand behind.
Meanwhile, Trump is still pretending that that he cares, despite evidence to the contrary.
The tacit admission of the GOP’s moral failure is revealed by Trump saying that the party “will become” focused on healthcare. Democrats passed the ACA — frequently known as Obamacare —providing healthcare for millions that previously couldn’t access it. If a party is “the party of healthcare,” it’s clearly the Democratic Party.
Republicans want to strip healthcare protections away with no replacement options in sight.
796 days in, 666 to go
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