Donald Trump campaigned on repealing ObamaCare, which is the crown jewel of Obama’s legislative agenda.
Now that he’s won the election – and the Republicans maintain their Congressional majorities – Americans are expecting President-elect Trump to make good on his promises.
And early reports are that the new administration will push the repeal of ObamaCare right out the gate.
During the final weeks of the campaign, Trump called for a special session of Congress to repeal ObamaCare.
This was in reaction to insurance companies announcing their premiums would rise an average of over 20 percent across America.
The oncoming rate hike was seen as pivotal in Trump’s closing argument – and it helped win him the election.
And Republicans are pledging swift action.
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said repealing ObamaCare would be a top priority.
Politico reports:
“Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Pence said Trump’s team is working with Republicans in Congress “to move an aggressive agenda.”
“Decisions have been made by the president-elect that he wants to focus out of the gate on repealing Obamacare and beginning the process of replacing Obamacare with the kind of free-market solutions that he campaigned on,” Pence said.”
Congressional Republicans also heard this call from the voters and are preparing to repeal ObamaCare in January 2017.
Politico also reports:
Republicans say repeal efforts will start in January. They are considering whether to swiftly repeal the biggest pieces of the law through a complex budget process called reconciliation that Democrats cannot block. If they go that route, Republicans would likely pass the repeal — but delay the effective date for a year or two until a replacement could theoretically be enacted. That would shield the GOP from an immediate backlash from taking away insurance. They are even considering passing the bill through Congress in early January so that Trump could have it on his desk within minutes of swearing the oath of office.
Alternatively, they might start by repealing some smaller but deeply unpopular parts of the law, such as the individual mandate.
“I don’t think we should take a lot of time,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “We understand what the problems are and we know that Obamacare is a destructive force in America and almost everybody admits it.”
“It doesn’t work, it’s costing too much money, it isn’t evolving into better health care and we have to do something to straighten it out,” Hatch added.
The chairmen of the House and Senate Budget committees have informally signed off on a plan to do both a 2017 and 2018 budget early in the Trump administration. That would give the GOP two opportunities to enact legislation that doesn’t allow a filibuster. (The House Budget chairman, Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, is being considered for HHS secretary.)
At the same time, they expect the Trump administration to use its executive powers to immediately start to peel apart other pieces of the law. The Senate Republican Policy Committee on Wednesday circulated a document that said regulatory relief would come “on Day One” from the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services.
“The original health care law itself was 2,700 pages, but there were also more than 40,000 pages of administrative rules, regulatory guidance, and even blog posts setting Obamacare policy,” they wrote. “A lot of this can be scaled back on Day One.”
Some conservatives were concerned about Trump because he had no previous experience in politics, leading to an ideology that didn’t fit the standard conservative/liberal parameters.
These critics also believed that since Trump’s beliefs were not well-defined, he would easily go back on his campaign promises.
But when it comes to ObamaCare, swift action to repeal the government run healthcare scheme is a top priority.
