Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson say they have big plans to implement “massive” changes to the entire U.S. food, drug, and health care system—from killing ObamaCare and all its protections, to handing over control of all health, food, and drug policies and agencies to conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—and they’re openly bragging about it just days before Election Day.
Republicans conspired to block every one of Barack Obama’s initiatives even before the 44th President was sworn in to office in January, 2009. They have spent years promising to “repeal and replace” ObamaCare, or just end the Affordable Care Act entirely. Donald Trump for over a decade has repeatedly vowed to kill ObamaCare, and repeatedly said he would end it and unveil his new health care plan soon, before admitting during the presidential debate all he had were mere “concepts of a plan.”
In September, The Washington Post reported Donald Trump “has spent 13 years promising a health-care plan” (video below).
On Monday in Pennsylvania, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson vowed to kill the Affordable Care Act, which covers tens of millions of Americans, has dramatically slashed the number of uninsured Americans, and offers widespread protections to over 133 million people in America.
“Health care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda. When I say we’re going to have a very aggressive first 100 days agenda, we got a lot of things still on the table,” Speaker Johnson told an attendee at a GOP candidate’s meeting, NBC News reported.
“No Obamacare?” an attendee asked.
“No Obamacare,” Johnson responded, before explaining how Donald Trump wants to “go big” in removing regulations.
“We want to take a blowtorch to the regulatory state,” Johnson said, per NBC. “These agencies have been weaponized against the people, it’s crushing the free market; it’s like a boot on the neck of job creators and entrepreneurs and risk takers. And so health care is one of the sectors and we need this across the board.”
“And Trump’s going to go big. I mean, he’s only going to have one more term. Can’t run for re-election. And so he’s going to be thinking about legacy and we’re going to fix these things.”
Sunday night at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, the ex-president promised to let RFK Jr. “go wild.”
“I’m gonna let him go wild on health. I’m gonna let him go wild on the food. I’m gonna let him go wild on the medicines.”
On Tuesday, RFK Jr. announced Donald Trump had “promised” to put him in charge of the entire federal public health system.
“The key that President Trump has promised me is control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH, and a few others, and then also the USDA.”
House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday remarked, “House Republicans plan to kill the Affordable Care Act, impose a nationwide abortion ban and implement Trump’s Project 2025. These extremists cannot be trusted with the health, safety and economic well-being of the American people.”
Last year, Forbes published what it described as “all the conspiracies” RFK Jr. promotes. Among them (quotes are Forbes’s, not RFK Jr.’s):
“Covid-19 targets certain races and gives others immunity,” “Mass shootings are linked to prescription drugs,” “The 2004 presidential election was stolen,” “The pharmaceutical industry is throwing money at Democrats,” “The Covid-19 virus was genetically engineered,” “Vaccines can cause autism,” and, “Former White House medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates sought to exaggerate the pandemic, in part, to promote vaccines.”
New York magazine’s “Intelligencer” columnist Ed Kilgore reports that Speaker Johnson “plans to make repealing Obamacare an immediate priority if Trump wins and Republicans control Congress, which likely means it would be rolled into a gigantic budget-reconciliation bill and steamrolled through to passage if possible.”
Kilgore adds, Johnson’s “party’s designs on health-care policy are radical, meant to replace the regulations central to Obamacare’s coverage guarantees with ‘free market’ provisions almost certain to return the health-care system to the days when insurers aggressively discriminated against anyone old, sick, or poor. Johnson’s rhetoric will also give Democrats an opportunity to remind voters that the last ‘repeal Obamacare’ package aimed to decimate Medicaid, the federal-state health-care program for poor people and a key part of the country’s social safety net. Beyond that, Johnson seemed to to be telling Pennsylvanians a reelected Trump wouldn’t care if his health-care plans made Americans unhappy.”
Watch the videos above or at this link.
David Badash is the founder and editor of The New Civil Rights Movement, an award-winning news and opinion site focused on progressive politics and civil rights.
