OPINION:
Radical Democrats love foisting lies onto the American people. In the age of President Trump, they have become experts at colluding with the mainstream media to rig national debates about critical issues facing the American people. The phony crisis that Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer has concocted to provide cover for his Trump-derangement-syndrome-fueled government shutdown is no exception.
Democrats in Congress are refusing to vote to open the federal government unless Republicans agree to $1.5 trillion in new spending to bail out collapsing Obamacare and continue providing free health care benefits to illegal immigrants.
Without this excessive spending, Democrats insist, folks will be thrown off their health care plans and needlessly get sick and die. This is false.
The manufactured emergency before us could have been dealt with at any time during the disastrous Biden-Harris administration, but Democrats waited until now to make it an issue to show their crazed base that they are fighting Mr. Trump and doing everything they can to stop his successful “America First” agenda.
For those of us who lived through the painful Obamacare debate of 2009 and 2010, we all know one thing: Obamacare was always designed to fail. The Democrats responsible for the horrendous legislation — former Presidents Obama and Biden, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and everyone in between — wanted it that way for one nefarious reason. Commonsense Americans know full well that if Obamacare goes belly up, Democrats will publicly cry, blame Republicans and act as if the world is coming to an end.
Privately, they will be celebrating and scheming because the failure of Obamacare opens the door to their dream come true: a single- payer, socialist, government-dictated health care system.
This moment has been 15 years in the making, and it’s imperative that Republicans in Congress follow Mr. Trump’s lead and refuse to wilt under pressure from the biased media. Obamacare didn’t hold down costs or provide quality care as promised, and it was one vote away from getting sent to the ash heap of history in 2017. Then, during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency and again with the deceptively named Inflation Reduction Act (Democrats never let a crisis go to waste), they threw in billions of taxpayer dollars to prop up the dying Obamacare with costly subsidies designed to be temporary.
Instead of confronting the underlying problem with bold ideas and thoughtful reform, Democrats do what they always do: put lipstick on a pig. To borrow from President Reagan, a government program “is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.”
The Schumer shutdown has become an opportunity for Republicans. It’s time to call Mr. Schumer on his bluff over Obamacare. If Democrats want to have a serious debate about rising health care costs, Republicans in Congress should welcome it with open arms, but on their own terms. This means a transparent and honest discussion about America’s dire financial situation and how we address our debt emergency and important health care obligations.
In the real world, dialogues such as this start with the price tag. After all, we’re drowning in a $37.9 trillion national debt and maintaining the failed status quo on spending is hardly enough. On the contrary, extraordinarily difficult decisions that are grounded in innovation and reform must be made and designed to streamline, cut and modernize.
So instead of taking the easy way out by giving CPR to the hemorrhaging nightmare that is Obamacare, Mr. Trump and a patriotic coalition of the willing in Congress should start discussing how to finally give the American people the health care system they deserve. Surely a system can be devised that honors our time-tested principles of limited government, private enterprise, competition and choice. American exceptionalism requires courageous leadership and doing it better than the rest of the world, not following in the failed footsteps of socialism and malaise.
We already know the history of government programs. They are bloated, nonresponsive, inefficient, expensive and destined for insolvency. Instead of raising money off TDS and the government shutdown, desperate Democrats should vote to reopen the government and have the constructive conversation about health care their constituents want.
In the meantime, Republicans would be wise to flip the script and welcome a robust national debate about Obamacare, rising health care costs and the national debt. Obamacare shouldn’t be resuscitated just because it has Barack Obama’s name on it.
• David N. Bossie is the president of Citizens United. He served as a senior adviser to the Trump 2024 and 2020 campaigns. He served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President in 2016 and deputy executive director for the Trump transition team.
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