President Donald Trump believes the media is "making Obamacare look so good" and that by doing so they are also making Republicans look bad for wanting to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law.
Trump made the comment Monday while meeting at the White House with Americans who officials described as "victims of Obamacare." The meeting came as the Trump administration and moderate Republicans in the House try to sell the American Health Care Act as a replacement for former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. Several conservative lawmakers have taken to calling the House GOP bill "Obamacare Lite."
Trump opened the roundtable meeting by blasting Obamacare, but he didn't pin the blame for America's "imploding" individual health care market on just the previous administration. In true Trump fashion, he also went after the media:
The press is making Obamacare look so good all of a sudden. I'm watching the news, looks so good. They're showing these reports about this one gets so much and this one gets so much. First of all, it covers very few people and it's imploding and 2017 will be the worst year. And I said it once, I'll say it again: because Obama's gone. Things are going to be very bad this year for the people with Obamacare. They're going to have tremendous increases.
Trump's suggestion that 2017 will be the "worst year" echoes a statement he made Friday during a meeting with House Republican leaders.
"That’s the year it was meant to explode, because Obama won’t be here. That’s when it was supposed to ... get even worse, " Trump said, New York Magazine reported. "As bad as it is now, it’ll get even worse."
Trump added Monday that Republicans could let the law self-destruct but acknowledged it would be harmful to millions of people who rely on Obamacare for coverage. However, the president said, the reality is that whether Republicans repeal the law or not "it'll be imploded off the map."
Trump then blamed the media for the fact that a majority of Americans — 51 percent — now support keeping Obamacare, at least in part:
So the press is making it look so wonderful so if we end it, everyone's going to say, "Oh, remember how great Obamacare used to be. Remember how wonderful it used to be." It was so great. It's a little bit like President Obama. When he left people like him. When he was here, people didn't like him so much. That's the way life goes. That's human nature.
(H/T: Daily Caller)
