Former President Barack Obama said Wednesday that repeated Republican attempts to repeal his eponymous health care legislation are “aggravating” and would cause “real human suffering.”
“The legislation that we passed was full of things that still need to be fixed. It wasn’t perfect. But it was better,” Obama said, speaking at an event hosted by the Gates Foundation in New York.
“And so when I see people trying to undo that hard-won progress, for the 50th or 60th time,” he added, to laughter, “with bills that would raise costs or reduce coverage or roll back protections for older Americans or people with pre-existing conditions — the cancer survivor, the expecting mom, or the child with autism, or asthma, for whom coverage once again would be almost unattainable — it is aggravating.”
Obama said attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act are “being done without any demonstrable economic or actuarial or plain common-sense rationale.”
“It frustrates. And it’s certainly frustrating to have to mobilize every couple of months to keep our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on our constituents,” he said.
“But typically that’s how progress is won, and how progress is maintained on every issue.”
Obama said progress “is never inevitable” and can “often be fragile.”
“It’s in need of constant renewal,” he said. “And our individual progress and our collective progress depends on our willingness to roll up our sleeves and work, and not be afraid to work.”
I feel like I have Obamacare repeal PTSD.
Not snark.
I have trouble sleeping at night whenever the GOP starts stirring up the repeal shit again. I am not likely to lose my coverage, but I get really stressed out about the millions who will lose their coverage. I cant sleep and I end up looking online for some hope that they will be stopped again. This is such an unhealthy way to run a government. People are not gonna be at their best when they have to stress out for months about losing their health care.
Why should Obama care: he did his job. But, Democrats are to blame for not showing up in the numbers requisite in 2016; instead, the Republicans have a juggernaut.
Not aggravating - it’s disgusting. Misguided. Petty. Dangerous. Sick. Heartless.
But I get the Presiden’t point here. You’d think the Republicans would have better things to do than revisit this over and over instead of just trying to make the ACA better, but I guess they don’t. After all, President Obama along with Democrats spent the last 7 years fixing the economy and bringing back jobs so now Repubs really have nothing to do except twiddle their thumbs and maybe name post offices.
The GOP’s “job” is to redistribute wealth upward and lie to the rubes, using tribal warfare and fear of The Other to get reelected, and cheat and gerrymander and suppress the vote. So, sadly, the GOP is doing its job. Sadder still that such a wide swath of the population is filled with brain dead, malignant assholes that ensures they keep getting elected.
We need you! … our nation turns its weary eyes to you…