Former president Barack Obama posted a nearly 1,000-word critique of the Senate health-care bill this afternoon on his Facebook page which puts in jeopardy perhaps his most significant legislative achievement. Obama wrote, “Simply put, this bill will do you harm.”
“The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill,” Obama wrote. “It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else. Those with private insurance will experience higher premiums and higher deductibles, with lower tax credits to help working families cover the costs, even as their plans might no longer cover pregnancy, mental health care, or expensive prescriptions. Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions could become the norm again. Millions of families will lose coverage entirely.
“Simply put, if there’s a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family – this bill will do you harm,” he continued. “And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.”
To put the American people through that pain while giving billionaires and corporations a massive tax cut in return, Obama said, is tough to fathom. “But it’s what’s at stake right now. So it remains my fervent hope that we step back and try to deliver on what the American people need. That might take some time and compromise between Democrats and Republicans. But I believe that’s what people want to see,” the former president wrote. “I believe it would demonstrate the kind of leadership that appeals to Americans across party lines. And I believe that it’s possible – if you are willing to make a difference again. If you’re willing to call your members of Congress. If you are willing to visit their offices. If you are willing to speak out, let them and the country know, in very real terms, what this means for you and your family.
“After all, this debate has always been about something bigger than politics. It’s about the character of our country – who we are, and who we aspire to be. And that’s always worth fighting for,” Obama added.
