Speaker Johnson: Confesses to Take Blow Torch to ACA & Make Dramatic Changes

 

Pic of his pledge to kill ACA making rounds

Hidden camera pic of Johnson's kill ACA pledge

You want more scary stuff from “leaderless” GOP Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) running to win and see Trump win, too? 

This headline story and contents should scare the living daylights out of all of us here from the WASHINGTON POST also here from USA TODAY with this headline:

“Mike Johnson vows major changes to Affordable Care Act if Trump wins election”

House Speaker Mike Johnson pledged “massive reform” of the Affordable Care Act if Trump is elected president, reopening a politically sensitive policy issue for Republicans a week before Election Day.

Johnson appeared at a campaign event Monday for a Republican House candidate in PA, and he told the attendees that GOP leaders are again weighing how to overhaul the 14-year-old ACA law, which provides health coverage to over 50 million Americans and has been a frequent target of Republican repeal efforts, today over 60% approval up from 38%.

Johnson said, wearing a personalized jacket emblazoned with the Trump-Vance campaign logo (photo above): “Health-care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda. A caucus of Republican physicians has shared proposals with him and that GOP leaders hope to take a blowtorch to the regulatory state and fix things.”

An attendee asked: “No Obamacare?” (Using the term popularized by Republicans to describe the health law since 2010).

Johnson responded: “No Obamacare, The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.”

The ACA, which Democrats enacted in 2010, has become one of the party’s more popular achievements after initially being perceived as a political liability. 

Sixty-two percent of adults had favorable views of the law in April, up from 38% a decade earlier, according to polling by KFF.

The law and its health insurance exchanges since established more than a decade ago continues to help lower the national uninsured rate to record lows in recent years. Kamala Harris has promised to expand enrollment through the law if elected president.

Republicans, meanwhile, had mounted over dozens of efforts and votes in Congress to overturn the law. Trump won the presidency in 2016 by pledging to “repeal Obamacare.”

But several Trump-led repeal efforts fell short — with the Senate in July 2017 coming one vote away from overturning the Affordable Care Act — and the law’s near-death catalyzed new support for it.

That historical one-vote moment – July 28, 2017 is when Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) did the best thing ever with his thumbs down “No vote” we will keep the ACA – his vote was needed – he saved the program and he died one year later from brain cancer himself. Watch the short video and remember that hero:

Thumbs down - to save ACA that's my vote (historic)

The backlash to Republicans’ repeal efforts also helped Democrats win back control of the House in 2018, prompting GOP leaders in recent years to avoid talking about doing away with the law. Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), last month even praised Trump as a good steward of the Affordable Care Act.

Democrats remain eager to highlight GOP's past pledges to “repeal Obamacare,” with the Harris campaign and its allies on Tuesday night portraying Johnson’s comments as a vow to do away with the Affordable Care Act.

Sarafina Chitika, a Harris campaign spokeswoman, said in a statement: “Speaker Mike Johnson is making it clear — if Donald Trump wins, he and his Project 2025 allies in Congress will make sure there is ‘no Obamacare. That means higher health-care costs for millions of families and ripping away protections from Americans with preexisting conditions like diabetes, asthma, or cancer.”

Then Leslie Dach, the chairman of Protect Our Care, a Democratic-aligned health-care advocacy group, wrote in a statement: “Johnson finally told the truth about Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican allies’ agenda for health care in their first 100 days. They want to repeal the ACA.”

Johnson’s office disputed Democrats’ interpretation, with a spokesman accusing Harris of “lying about Speaker Johnson” by claiming that he had pledged to repeal the law.

Johnson spokesman Taylor Haulsee wrote in a statement: “The audio, transcript, and even the NBC News article her campaign cites make clear that the Speaker made no such comments.”

Haulsee declined to comment on what health-care changes Johnson would pursue next year or whether the House speaker would rule out an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The Trump campaign said that he did not support repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement: “This is not President Trump’s policy position. As President Trump has said, he will make our healthcare system better by increasing transparency, promoting choice and competition, and expanding access to new affordable healthcare and insurance options.”

Trump has worked to downplay his past criticism of the Affordable Care Act ahead of the election, saying in that September debate that he would keep the “lousy” law in place, while acknowledging he still hopes to replace it with something “much better.”

Vance floated a plan to roll back its approach to helping chronically ill people shop for better plans. FYI: That has been tired with no luck.

My 2 Cents: Nice try GOP & MAGA Mike Johnson – when Trump loses, which he will, then I expect to see MAGA Mike resign from Congress out of shame. 

The man is not a leader. 

I bet he can’t even spell leadership (re: My earlier post here). 

Thanks for stopping by.