USA TODAY International Edition
President expects health overhaul in 2018
WASHINGTON – President Trump began his post-Christmas break Tuesday by launching Twitter blasts on two issues likely to dominate his second year in office: health care and the investigation into alleged Russian interference in his 2016 election.
Trump predicted that Democrats and Republicans would come together to overhaul President Obama’s health care law in the coming year after Congress passed a massive tax cut bill that included a provision affecting the 2010 law.
“Based on the fact that the very unfair and unpopular Individual Mandate has been terminated as part of our Tax Cut Bill, which essentially Repeals (over time) ObamaCare, the Democrats & Republicans will eventually come together and develop a great new HealthCare plan!” Trump tweeted.
What was repealed — effective in 2019 — was the requirement that nearly everyone have insurance or pay a penalty at tax time. Eliminating the individual mandate will probably mean less people insured, and that is likely to raise costs for those who do have it.
Trump was clear on his goal to forge a new health care plan next year. The Republican-run Congress has been unable to find a compromise that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
The policy-focused missive was quickly followed by a loud denunciation of a report on Russian election hacking. A dossier, put together by a political research firm and a British exintelligence official, claimed that Trump associates worked with the Russians to influence the election by hacking Democratic officials and pushing fake news. Citing the morning television program Fox & Friends, Trump again blamed the Democrats and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for the dossier that surfaced just before his inauguration Jan. 20.
The president tweeted, “WOW, @foxandfrlends ‘Dossier is bogus. Clinton Campaign, DNC funded Dossier. FBI CANNOT (after all of this time) VERIFY CLAIMS IN DOSSIER OF RUSSIA/TRUMP COLLUSION. FBI TAINTED.’ And they used this Crooked Hillary pile of garbage as the basis for going after the Trump Campaign!”
Special counsel Robert Mueller and various congressional committees are investigating some of the claims made in the dossier.