![](\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2017.01\/thumbnail\/586d28b6c46188211c8b4615.jpg\")
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As the Republican leadership of the 115th Congress prepares to fulfill US President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s campaign promise of repealing and replacing Obamacare, Democrats are digging in to defend President Barack Obama\u2019s signature healthcare law.<\/p>\n
Following a two-hour meeting with Obama on Wednesday, the congressional Democratic leadership accused the Republicans of wanting to \u201cmake America sick again\u201d<\/em> and throwing the US economy into chaos by repealing Obamacare, officially known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA).<\/p>\n READ MORE: New faces, old quarrels: A look at the 115th US Congress<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) described the GOP as the \u201cdog who caught the bus\u201d<\/em> and then doesn\u2019t know what to do with it. Repealing the ACA would cause insurance premiums to skyrocket and hurt rural hospitals in the Republican heartland, he argued.<\/p>\n \u201cRepublicans should stop clowning around with the people\u2019s Medicare, Medicaid and healthcare,\u201d<\/em> said Schumer, responding to a series of tweets by Trump that described congressional Democrats as \u201cSchumer clowns.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases……<\/p>\n \u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n like the 116% hike in Arizona. Also, deductibles are so high that it is practically useless. Don’t let the Schumer clowns out of this web…<\/p>\n \u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight – be careful!<\/p>\n \u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/center><\/div>\n House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) argued that Obamacare succeeded in curbing the growth of healthcare costs, which were \u201cunsustainable\u201d<\/em> before, and called it a \u201cpillar of economic and health security for the American people.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cRepublicans attempting to repeal the ACA have nothing to replace it with,\u201d<\/em> said Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland), the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee. He cited polls showing that Americans do not want the ACA repealed, but \u201cdon\u2019t mind it being improved.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cPresident-elect Trump made it clear that we would not have people dying in the streets, and we are going to hold him to that,\u201d<\/em> Cummings said.<\/p>\n The Republican majority, on the other hand, is\u00a0 determined to dismantle Obamacare as soon as possible. Vice President-elect Mike Pence made the emphatic announcement at a press conference Wednesday, flanked by the House GOP leadership.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first order of business is to repeal and replace Obamacare,\u201d<\/em> said Pence, arguing that the ACA has \u201cworked a hardship on American families and American businesses.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe healthcare system has been ruined, dismantled under Obamacare,\u201d<\/em> said Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin). \u201cThis law has failed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n On the other hand, Pence cautioned that the GOP plan is still in the works and that the Trump administration wanted an \u201corderly transition\u201d <\/em>to avoid inflicting additional hardships on families endured under the ACA.<\/p>\n \u201cThe promises that were made were all broken,\u201d <\/em>Pence said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be in the promise-keeping business.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Obamacare is literally the government FORCING you to by something you don’t want to buy. Then raising costs. Expensive govt coercion.<\/p>\n \u2014 Steven Crowder (@scrowder) January 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/center><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the Republican leadership of the 115th Congress prepares to fulfill US President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s campaign promise of repealing and replacing Obamacare, Democrats are digging in to defend President Barack Obama\u2019s signature healthcare law. Following a two-hour meeting with Obama on Wednesday, the congressional Democratic leadership accused the Republicans of wanting to \u201cmake America sick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":288614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-288613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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