Long before the coronavirus pandemic, Trump was already on the warpath to eliminate the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). It was and continues to be part of his obsession to undo anything and everything associated with President Obama, as if his achievements haunted the new president and required him to literally expunge his legacy. Unfortunately, Americans are the ones who are victimized by this obsession. Our president has allowed national policy to be consumed not by a desire to improve quality of life for all but rather by a pathological need to attack his predecessor. Consider this mind-blowing list, assembled by Bustle, of Obama-era regulations that Trump undid in the first year alone!
- Abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership
- Ordered the U.S. military to disallow transgender soldiers
- Re-imposed restrictions on commerce and travel with Cuba
- Withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords
- Reversed federal protections for transgender students
- Ended cost-sharing health care subsidies for low income Americans
- Enabled employers to deny birth control on religious or moral grounds
- Gave universities more leeway to choose how they arbitrate and investigate sexual assault allegations while shifting the burden of proof in favor of the accused
- Gutted the advertising budget for ACA enrollment
- Announced the end of DACA
- Undid the requirement imposed on American companies of 100+ workers to report wage statistics by gender and race in order to assess the gender pay gap
- Cancelled methane emissions reporting requirements
- Stripped regulations on greenhouse gases
- Revoked a ban on an insecticide causing fetal brain and nervous system disabilities
- Reversed an anti-militarization policy to enable police departments to accumulate weapons and equipment of war
- Reversed a ban on plastic water bottles in national parks
- Banned, at least partially, immigration from Muslim countries
- Revived the Keystone XL pipeline that traversed land belonging to indigenous and Native tribes in the Dakotas
- Shifted criminal justice attitudes to pursue more severe penalties in prosecutions
- Emboldened institutions to discriminate on religious grounds
- Resumed plans for offshore oil drilling
- Authorized states to deny funding for health clinics that perform abortions
- Ended collaboration with the National Commission on Forensic Science
- Scrapped rules to improve consumer food safety of ready-to-eat meals
- Revisited reform agreements with police departments aimed at better policing and reduced civil rights violations in favor of more aggressive criminal enforcement
- Thwarted OSHA’s ability to issue citations against companies not tracking workplace-related injuries and deaths
- Reduced restrictions on those with severe mental health afflictions to purchase and own guns
- Expanded use of private prisons
- Reversed regulations set forth by the 2010 Dodd-Frank reform bill in order to placate major financial institutions
- Reinstated a funding ban on non-governmental organizations supporting abortion.
Without reviewing the laundry list of additional Obama-era bills that Trump eliminated during years two, three, and four of his first term, let us return to the one target that has evaded him — the Affordable Care Act, easily Obama’s most endearing legacy. Trump has already lost two Supreme Court challenges on the constitutionality of the law, but a third attempt is scheduled for November when Trump will have Amy Coney Barrett in his corner. The danger of its reversal couldn’t be more clear, especially during a pandemic. Not only does ACA ensure that people who get insurance are covered for pre-existing conditions, but the fact that health care insurance is typically tied to employment means that millions of Americans were already uncovered before the massive hit to our economy caused by coronavirus. If Trump gets his way and can expunge the USA of yet another Obama-era bill, 23 million citizens will be without health insurance, the impact of COVID-19 will be more severe and longer lasting — since fewer will seek treatment, and African Americans and Latinos will be hit the hardest. There is no upside to the dissolution of Obamacare other than defending a sanctimonious claim that individual rights are infringed by having to be insured for the benefit of society. That Trump continues to pursue such a crusade in the middle of a global pandemic demonstrates just how irresponsible and self-centered he is, and how dangerous his obsession is to our country.
