While speaking at the Value Voters Summit, Steve Bannon admitted that Trump ended the CSR payments not to make healthcare better, but as part of a plan to make healthcare worse by blowing up the Obamacare exchanges.
Video:
Bannon tells 'Values Voters Summit' Trump pulled CSR payments to 'blow up' Obamacare exchanges, make prices skyrocket. pic.twitter.com/pt4pjhYZoW
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 15, 2017
Bannon said, “Then you had Obamacare. Not gonna’ make the CSR payments. Gonna’ blow that thing up. Going to blow those exchanges up, right?”
The official explanation from the White House was that CSR payments were illegal, “It has been clear for many years that Obamacare is bad policy. It is also bad law. The Obama Administration unfortunately went ahead and made CSR payments to insurance companies after requesting – but never ultimately receiving – an appropriation from Congress as required by law. In 2014, the House of Representatives was forced to sue the previous Administration to stop this unconstitutional executive action. In 2016, a federal court ruled that the Administration had circumvented the appropriations process, and was unlawfully using unappropriated money to fund reimbursements due to insurers. After a thorough legal review by HHS, Treasury, OMB, and an opinion from the Attorney General, we believe that the last Administration overstepped the legal boundaries drawn by our Constitution. Congress has not appropriated money for CSRs, and we will discontinue these payments immediately.”
Ending the payments had nothing to do with legality. The goal has always been to destabilize the ACA exchanges and harm the health insurance system. Trump’s idea is that if he can cause enough destruction to the system, people will come around to supporting his terrible plan.
Steve Bannon let the cat out the bag and destroyed Trump’s flimsy excuse. As soon as people begin to lose their health care or pay higher premiums, they are going to know exactly who to blame, and the real reason why this was done.
It is almost as if Bannon is intentionally trying to screw over Trump.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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