One of the weirdest claims in the Trump-Harris debate was Trump's lengthy declaration that he sucked it up and did his best to save a flailing Obamacare because it was the best choice for the American people. J.D. Vance repeated the claim tonight.
It's beyond even Trumpian levels of bizarreness. He campaigned on repealing Obamacare. He spent months pushing repeal through the House and almost through the Senate. He reacted bitterly to losing the fight thanks to a single vote by Sen. John McCain. He then spent the rest of his term defunding outreach and supporting lawsuits against Obamacare. And he's been publicly trashing it ever since.
This is not ancient history. We were all there. It's just not possible to gaslight Democrats about this, and Republicans aren't impressed in the first place since they all wanted to repeal Obamacare too.
In fact, Republicans tried to repeal Obamacare endlessly. They savaged it constantly. Nearly a dozen Republican states still don't accept its virtually free Medicaid expansion out of sheer spite. This is so deeply embedded in Republican DNA that it's literally impossible even for Trump to turn around and pretend to be its champion. It would be like Democrats trying to convince the country that they've never really been in favor of food stamps. Just forget it.
So what's the story? Why hasn't it been a bigger deal that Trump now says he's a big fan of keeping and improving Obamacare? And why has Kamala Harris mostly just shrugged about it? Can anyone even take a stab at explaining this to me?
I do kind of understand the problem confronting Democrats and the media. The campaign is already little but Trump Trump Trump. Journalists have been criticised, rightly so, for allowing him to dominate news stories with his endless insane tweets and outrageous lies. So I can understand their reluctance to find room for even more of the same. I expect they've not bothered with this story because no American with an ounce of sense is going to think Trump is suddenly pro-Obamacare.
Personally, I would prefer the media and Democrats to focus their attention on the core themes of Trump's campaign - race-baiting, magic pudding tariffs*, climate change denialism, rabid scaremongering - and not get distracted by the countless bits of shit with which he floods the zone.
*A magic talking pudding named Albert which, no matter how often he is eaten, always reforms in order to be eaten again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Pudding
I expect they've not bothered with this story because no American with an ounce of sense is going to think Trump is suddenly pro-Obamacare.
Unfortunately, that group includes a depressingly large share of American voters.
True, but those same people are unlikely to pay close (or any) attention to what Trump says in his never-ending firehose of bullshit.
Everything about he conservative mind is the Magic Pudding. No matter how often it fails it invariably reforms, exactly the same way, decade after decade, century after century.
He's lying to his supporters on this one, at least those of them who have benefited from the ACA and/or don't hate it or perhaps even like it. Whenever he talks about this or anything else that seems confusing, remember that this is just meant for them. He's a cult leader talking to his cultists.
What is Harris supposed to do? Call him a liar? He will just say, "No, you're the liar." Harris isn't going to win any votes from people who think Trump isn't a liar.
You know, all the things left on the table during the two debates should be brought up when Harris goes 1-on-1 with 60 Minutes. If she has to, bring up healthcare and point out that Trump and JD lied, then pull out the KFF chart.
And as they talk more about healthcare, talk about Project 2025's plan to slash over $4T in spending on Medicaid and ACA subsidies that will force millions off medical support.
Fine if she does, but its not going to persuade anybody else. I believe there aren't any persuadable voters left -- its all going to go down to getting enough D-side voters to the polls.
I don't think there were ever very many persuadable voters. Historically, most of those who claim to be undecided have, in reality, already decided, but just seem to like the cachet of being undecided. I guess they think it makes them look thoughtful, when in reality, if you have a hard time deciding between Harris and Trump, you're anything but thoughtful.
I guess he is just trying to gaslight the low information voter. The hard core base doesn’t care what he says. They’ll excuse it. The stuff he is saying is fairly anodyne so he’s hoping that the people in the middle will just hear something about he is in favor of health care.
This. The media will generally help him do this. The Harris campaign loses an item that they can campaign on.
It only matters with low info voters, but they will make all the difference.
That's it, totally, and what's with Kevin? There's nothing to explain. He's changing his tune because ACA is popular and because he's learned that he can get away with anything. Same as his approach to abortion rights, once a cause for godless murderers.
His supporters will accept anything, the frankly stupid swing voters will lose their sense of a difference between candidates, and the media will shrug it off or worse. More evidence? How about today's NYT headline for coverage of the VP debate. Who won? Vance because he showed a "knock for revising history." It's a positive!
"It's just not possible to gaslight Democrats about this, and Republicans aren't impressed in the first place since they all wanted to repeal Obamacare too."
Trump and Vance have figured out that they cannot win with the MAGA vote alone. So they are trying to poach some Democratic votes.
I don't think so; they are trying to poach RINO votes.
The bar is so low now, all Trump has to do is pretend he can be reasonable for two hours, and people will say, "Wow, he can fake sanity for two whole hours, so maybe he's fit to be C-in-Chief after all." Not even kidding. Everyone knows he's lying about health care. But he can pretend. And that's enough to reassure.
So, the October surprises are here: Biden's and Harris's total humiliations by Bibi, with the lie given to their "stability" and people longing for anything, anyone but that, Vance clearing the low bar of smoothness, and Trump clearing one that's on the floor. It all seemed so predictable. So easy.
Unfortunately, Biden is too blindly pro-Israel, no matter how much humiliation Bibi heaps on him, to try this idea, BUT a win-win strategy for justice and electoral politics could be: Biden reversing course on unconditional support for Israel, Harris coming out in wishy washy ways that distances herself from Biden's actions but agreeing with the goal of supporting deescalation and international law.
Biden could "condition" aid by simply following US's own laws (no military aid for govt's that block humanitarian relief; no funding for countries engaged in violations of international law). Once that's done Kamala has cover by being bound by American law once in office.
But as I said, Biden is sadly too far down the "Israel über alles" rabbit-hole to do this, and Kamala is an unknown (rose-colored glasses, I know).
I just read something saying that Harris is planning to ratchet up health care and the ACA for the remainder of the campaign.
MAGA cult members approve anything he says, whether they understand it or not.
Knowledgeable Rs who are holding their nose and voting for Trump because they hate Ds know he's lying.
Ds know he's lying.
He saying this for the benefit of low-information "swing" or undecided voters.
Thinking of the fact that Trump is a terrible businessman who nevertheless repaired (and then some) his reputation by playing a good businessman on TV, the debate was depressingly in line with our culture. Vance is a deconstruct-the-administrative-state Federalist society type who can come across as reasonable and normal when he wants to.
Its now reasonably popular, even in the red states, so of course he now likes it and by the way, he actually saved the ACA during his term.
The real problem is that the vast majority of this country are just morons, with a memory of a fruit fly. Trump partied with the MAGA House on the WH lawn when they voted to repeal the ACA and was 1 vote away in the Senate. He never had, and does not have a plan to replace, fix, or do anything with healthcare.
And please don't forget that he appointed the three "Gilead" SCOTUS judges who guaranteed repeal of Roe, gave $2T+ of tax cuts for the wealthy, built like only 60 miles of new boarder fences, touted fake covid cures, and planned a takeover of the government when he lost. And he still has a 50/50 chance of getting reelected.
The ACA is popular, Trump knows this and needs to win in places where it is. So, he just says some shit, figure 25% of the voters have no idea, and he picks up voters. The media will report it, there is the myth that the media is against him and well there you go.
A good rule of thumb is if you're unsure about Trumps deal, assume he's lying. Odds are in your favor. His deal with the A.C.A. is a great example.
Always trust a Democrat to piss away an advantage.
The underlying reason is that the MSM, seeing massive lies by Trump, have supported a massive propaganda campaign.