President Trump Renews Crusade To Repeal Obamacare By Eliminating Key Subsidies

President Donald Trump‘s great crusade to eliminate Obamacare has regained some of its momentum in an executive order signed Thursday in an effort to sabotage the bill by eliminating government subsidies, forcing taxpayers to fork over the costs.

Since the election, Trump has worked tirelessly to scuttle Obamacare. But each new “repeal and replace” GOP bill has died in the Senate. In an executive order signed by Trump on Thursday, instead of a repeal and replace, we see an effort more in line with that of a self-inflicted wound.

The subsidies now being withheld are an estimated $7 billion and were set to be dispersed by the federal government through a series of monthly installments. Though not all of it will be withheld since Obamacare is still technically in effect, many will stop immediately since Congress hasn’t yet appropriated the funding for the program.

This decision leaked mere hours after Trump signed the order and was confirmed by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in an email to the press.

“Based on guidance from the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that there is no appropriation for cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies under Obamacare,” she said. “In light of this analysis, the Government cannot lawfully make the cost-sharing reduction payments. …The bailout of insurance companies through these unlawful payments is yet another example of how the previous administration abused taxpayer dollars and skirted the law to prop up a broken system.”

On Thursday night Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D- N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D- Calif.) issued a joint statement where they called President Trumps latest move “sabotage.”

“It is a spiteful act of vast, pointless sabotage leveled at working families and the middle class in every corner of America…”Make no mistake about it, Trump will try to blame the Affordable Care Act, but this will fall on his back and he will pay the price for it.”

California, a poster-child for how well the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could work, has already taken precautionary measures by instituting a 12.5% surcharge to its ACA silverplans, which allows taxpayers to pick up the extra costs, should subsidies suddenly end.

President Trump on Friday reached out once more to Democratic lawmakers in an effort to coerce them into working on a bipartisan healthcare plan with Republicans. But most Dem’s refuse to settle for anything less than what ACA already offers. Something likely to hit a roadblock during bipartisan discussions.