The More Conservatives Cave To Trump, The Further Left He’ll Move. Today’s Episode: Medicaid Expansion!
Donald Trump supporters seem to think that the best way to encourage Trump to move to the right is cheering him on ardently from the sidelines, no matter what he does. Precisely the opposite is the case: Trump responds only when he feels pressure to bargain with those who disagree with him.
This week, for example, Trump has seen an upswing in his polling data. He’s successfully consolidating the Republican base, he’s running neck-and-neck with Hillary in the swing states. And, unsurprisingly, he’s tacking hard to the left, while his supporters follow along like chastened puppies.
Last week, the apostasy-cum-orthodoxy of the day was cheerful praise for Vladimir Putin. Earlier this week, it was touting government-funded maternity leave. Today, Trump told Dr. Oz that he’d expand Medicaid dramatically for the people who fall through the cracks:
We have to go and help them through the Medicaid system. We have to help them publicly. We’re going to have to do it. Nobody wants to see people – and it’s totally unfair – a lot of people said, oh, gee, that’s not the thing to say. I said, well you know what? If I can’t say that, I’m not running for office…We’re going to take care of that through the Medicaid system. We’re going to take care of those people. We haven o choice. We’re not going to let people die on the streets.
I’m old enough to remember when Republicans opposed expanding Medicaid. As of 2013, Medicaid already covered nearly 60 million Americans and cost the feds $265 billion and the states another $192 billion. As Chris Jacobs of Conservative Review has written, “Both Medicaid’s size—currently 2.7 percent of gross domestic product, and growing—and its structure present fiscal difficulties.” Some studies show that Medicaid patients have worse outcomes than people without insurance altogether, Jacobs writes.
Medicaid expansion is crucial to Obamacare’s success. In fact, as of October 2015, 97 percent of those added to Obamacare’s rolls came courtesy of Medicaid. Medicaid expansion encourages people not to buy private health care plans and drives up the cost of healthcare by creating massive new demand without attendant supply. Dr. Oz’s language – people falling through the cracks – specifically applies to young, single adults without children who aren’t covered by other governmental programs, precisely the people Obama wanted to cover with his crammed-down Medicaid expansions across the country.
But don’t worry – Trump’s seriously conservative with his proposal to mirror Obama on Medicaid expansion.
Here’s the truth: if conservatives keep giving Trump rope, he’ll hang them with it. The more conservatives have shouted, the more he’s catered to them, from his Heritage Foundation judge list to his detailed tax policy. When Trump thinks he has conservatives in his back pocket, he ignores them and follows his heart to the left. As he told Sean Hannity regarding his maternity leave plans: “I felt this for a long time, but I guess maybe we weren’t in quite the same position we’re in right now.”
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the thing Trump doesnt realize is almost the entire expansion of Obamacare was Medicaid. we already have it.
— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) September 15, 2016
Also, given that 80% of enrollment in most exchanges is Medicaid, and Trump loves the program, what is wrong with what Obama did?
— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) September 15, 2016
We already spend an enormous $365 billion on medicaid, not including exchange subsidies and CHIP. up from 142 billion in 2000
— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) September 15, 2016
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