{"id":35217,"date":"2017-07-20T16:43:25","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T23:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=35217"},"modified":"2017-07-21T01:32:41","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T08:32:41","slug":"trump-admin-is-misusing-funds-for-obamacare-on-efforts-to-sabotage-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=35217","title":{"rendered":"Trump Admin is Misusing Funds for ObamaCare on Efforts to Sabotage It"},"content":{"rendered":"

For much of his still nascent administration, Donald Trump has sought to portray the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) as dead. It is more of a negative branding campaign than anything connected to facts or reality. The American people have expressed their support<\/a><\/strong> for ObamaCare in numerous polls. But Trump is determined to destroy it while promoting his extraordinarily unpopular attempt at repeal and replace.<\/p>\n

\"Donald
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

The Daily Beast is now reporting<\/a><\/strong> that the Trump administration has been misdirecting funds intended to encourage enrollment in ObamaCare. Instead, they have been using it in “a public relations campaign aimed at methodically strangling it.”<\/em> That violates both the ACA’s legal mandate and the President’s constitutional duty to “faithfully execute the laws of the land.”<\/em> According to The Daily Beast:<\/p>\n

“The strategy has caught the eye of legal experts and Democrats in Congress, who have asked government agencies to investigate whether the administration has misused funds and engaged in covert propaganda in its efforts to damage and overturn the seven-year-old health care law. It\u2019s also roiled Obama administration veterans, who argue that the current White House is not only abdicating its responsibilities to administer the law but sabotaging it in an effort to facilitate its undoing by Congress.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Health and Human Services department, under healthcare opposing Trump appointee Tom Price, has been busily producing anti-ObamaCare videos. The videos feature alleged “victims”<\/em> of ObamaCare. It’s a blatantly one-sided propaganda venture that ignores the millions of people<\/a><\/strong> the ACA has helped. And the taxpayer funds diverted to it are substantial, despite its twisted purpose and ineffectiveness:<\/p>\n

“Under Secretary Tom Price\u2019s stewardship, HHS has filmed and produced a series of testimonial videos featuring individuals claiming to have been harmed by Obamacare. Those ”viral’ videos have had decidedly limited reach, often gathering somewhere between 100 and 200 views each. But the Department has made a heavy investment in them nonetheless. To date, it has released 23 videos. A source familiar with the video production says that there have been nearly 30 interviews conducted in total, from which more than 130 videos have been produced.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The funds for this project are coming from the HHS’s Consumer Information and Outreach budget. It’s appalling that the administration would divert money intended to help people get insurance to a campaign of deliberate sabotage. They are taking money allocated to advance a healthy populace, and using it to steer people away from healthcare choices that are legally available to them. In effect, they may be guiding people away from necessary medical attention that could result in tragedy.<\/p>\n

This isn’t the first attempt by the Trump administration to make America sick again. Trump has been making thinly veiled threats<\/a><\/strong> about discontinuing the cost-sharing reductions (subsidies) that make insurance affordable for millions. That would also throw the insurance markets into a state of instability that could threatened future participation. And they have made changes to the websites for HHS and Healthcare.gov that are unambiguously hostile to consumers seeking information about ObamaCare. Earlier this year the White House halted all advertising and promotions<\/a><\/strong> to encourage last minute enrollments for 2017 coverage. That was a sinister attempt to keep the public uninformed and enrollment numbers down.<\/p>\n

\n

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
\nFox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.<\/a>
\nAvailable now at Amazon.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the end, all of this is nothing more than the fulfillment of the Republican dream: deprive Americans of healthcare and reward the wealthy with tax cuts. Although they obviously don’t like ObamaCare, it is the current law of the land. And the agency tasked with administering it ought not be working to kill it. If they could pass their repeal (which it appears they cannot), things might be different. In the meantime, all they are doing is cynically and selfishly playing politics with people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For much of his still nascent administration, Donald Trump has sought to portray the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) as dead. It is more of a negative branding campaign than anything connected to facts or reality. The American people have expressed their support for ObamaCare in numerous polls. But Trump is determined to destroy it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,361,1200,8],"tags":[554,1142,1066],"class_list":["post-35217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-healthcare","category-politics","category-propaganda","tag-donald-trump","tag-healthcare","tag-obamacare"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-9a1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34843,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=34843","url_meta":{"origin":35217,"position":0},"title":"Donald Trump On Passing Healthcare Bill: ‘It’s Going to be Republicans or Bust’ (VIDEO)","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/7\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald Trump traveled to Cincinnati today to campaign on behalf of his infrastructure initiative.He delivered a typical misrepresentation of reality and offered no details about his own phantom proposal. But what stood out in his speech had nothing whatsoever to do with the topic he came to discuss. Taking a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"ObamaCare Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/obamacare-trump.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/obamacare-trump.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/obamacare-trump.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":39656,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=39656","url_meta":{"origin":35217,"position":1},"title":"Dazed and Confused: Trump Warns that Democrats Will ‘Obliterate ObamaCare’ in Deranged Rant","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/6\/2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, it is literally impossible to ignore any longer. 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It is an object lesson in the pettiness of a vengeful, self-absorbed man who couldn't care less about the welfare of the American people. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump marketed himself as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-c-loser.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-c-loser.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-c-loser.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":36108,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=36108","url_meta":{"origin":35217,"position":3},"title":"ObamaCare Signups Breaking Records Despite Trump’s Sabotage and Declaring it Dead","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/7\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month Donald Trump gave a definitive assessment of what he considered the status of ObamaCare. \"ObamaCare is finished,\" he began. \"It's dead. 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It's generous to call it an alternative when it mainly guts the existing plan and grants millionaires a huge tax break. Nevertheless, Trump went into his negative branding routine, calling ObamaCare a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Graphix"","block_context":{"text":"Graphix","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"Obama Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/obama-trump.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/obama-trump.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/obama-trump.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":68230,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=68230","url_meta":{"origin":35217,"position":5},"title":"Trump’s New Plan to Kill Obamacare Would Cost People More and Make Insurance Companies Richer","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/8\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"One thing that Donald Trump deserves credit for is his steadfast determination to make life more difficult for most Americans, while enriching himself, his billionaire pals, and the wealthy corporations that suck up to him. 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