Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had some strong words for the Republican Party on Friday, saying that if Congress manages to pass the Senate health care bill, the GOP will become the “death party.” Clinton wrote the strong words on Twitter as she retweeted a study by the Center for American Progress that said the health care bill currently making its way through the Senate could lead to as many as 28,000 additional deaths in 2026. “Forget death panels. If Republicans pass this bill, they’re the death party,” she tweeted.
Clinton has been using Twitter to speak up against the health care bill over the past few days and her latest comments come as former President Barack Obama also took to social media to oppose the measure. In a Facebook post, the president warned that “this bill will do you harm.”
President Donald Trump is now personally trying to woo fellow Republicans to get behind the health care legislation as five GOP senators have now publicly said they won’t support the bill. Republicans can only afford to lose two of their 52 senators and still pass the bill with a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence. The real numbers of Republican senators who oppose the measure could actually be much higher though, considering several have refused to say one way or another whether they support the overhaul.
Trump took to Twitter on Saturday to criticize the Affordable Care Act and Democrats who are opposed to the Republican repeal bill. “Democrats slam GOP healthcare proposal as Obamacare premiums & deductibles increase by over 100%. Remember keep your doctor, keep your plan,” the president wrote early Saturday morning.
Although the measure is being billed as a way for Republicans to make good on their promise to repeal Obamacare, the bill also goes a long way to fulfilling a long-held goal by the GOP to slash entitlement spending while cutting taxes on the rich. The Washington Post explains:
All together, it shows how long-term conservative goals of cutting taxes and entitlement spending have overtaken Trump’s agenda, as the bill faces critical votes in the Senate as soon as next week that could take it to the precipice of becoming law. Reducing taxes, Republicans argue, will boost the economy, and shrinking spending on programs such as Medicaid will slow the growth of the federal debt.
“When otherwise has this been done?” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a Republican and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. “You can’t name any combination of tax cuts and entitlement reforms like this in one bill.”
“This is a historic enterprise, and it explains why the screaming coming out of the left is so fierce,” he added.
