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CNN finally says it: The real reason Trump is so dead set on crushing Obamacare [View all]
. . .The key to understanding Trump's motivations here are entirely contained in the ACA's shorthand nickname: Obamacare. It's named after the man -- former President Barack Obama (duh) -- who shepherded it into existence. And that's exactly why Trump wants to get rid of it.
Trump's entire political life -- dating all the way back to his adoption of birtherism earlier this decade -- is positioned against all things Obama. Why? Because for many Trump supporters in this country, Obama -- and his beliefs about society and government -- were the antithesis of what they believed. (Yes, Obama's race -- and multicultural vision of the country and the world -- were part of that mix as well.)
The best way to distinguish yourself in Republican politics during Obama's time in office was to position yourself against, literally, everything about Obama -- up to and including his legitimacy to be president due to fact-free claims about where he was born.
. . .
Trump's calculation -- and he placed a VERY big bet on this -- was that he could win the GOP nod (and get elected president) by being the polar opposite of Obama on, well, pretty much everything. That started with his condemnation of Obamacare but has continued with his decision to de-certify the Iran nuclear deal, his pullout from the Paris climate accords, his support for the Keystone XL pipeline, his regulatory rollbacks, his plan to end DACA and lots (and lots) of other policy decision from this administration in its first nine months.
. . .
The problem with that approach, of course, is that being against what the last guy did isn't a proactive set of policy solutions. Unlike in a campaign -- in which saying, essentially, "I'll do the opposite of what the last guy did" -- where running against something often works better than running for something, governing is a very different animal.
Trump's entire political life -- dating all the way back to his adoption of birtherism earlier this decade -- is positioned against all things Obama. Why? Because for many Trump supporters in this country, Obama -- and his beliefs about society and government -- were the antithesis of what they believed. (Yes, Obama's race -- and multicultural vision of the country and the world -- were part of that mix as well.)
The best way to distinguish yourself in Republican politics during Obama's time in office was to position yourself against, literally, everything about Obama -- up to and including his legitimacy to be president due to fact-free claims about where he was born.
. . .
Trump's calculation -- and he placed a VERY big bet on this -- was that he could win the GOP nod (and get elected president) by being the polar opposite of Obama on, well, pretty much everything. That started with his condemnation of Obamacare but has continued with his decision to de-certify the Iran nuclear deal, his pullout from the Paris climate accords, his support for the Keystone XL pipeline, his regulatory rollbacks, his plan to end DACA and lots (and lots) of other policy decision from this administration in its first nine months.
. . .
The problem with that approach, of course, is that being against what the last guy did isn't a proactive set of policy solutions. Unlike in a campaign -- in which saying, essentially, "I'll do the opposite of what the last guy did" -- where running against something often works better than running for something, governing is a very different animal.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/13/politics/trump-obamacare-subsidies/index.html
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