Appearing on Fox News Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus fended off host Chris Wallace who continually pointed out that the American Health Care Act (ACHA) passed by the GOP-majority House fell far short of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises that no one would lose their insurance. According to Priebus, what came through the House is not representative of what the final bill will look like. “It’s up to the Senate to make improvements if they’re to be made,” Priebus told Wallace. “Everyone is excited and ready to go to work and take the time necessary to look at the bill. No one’s going to be beating down their door.”
“But, before we go any further, Chris, I just have to ask one question here,” Priebus continued. “I realize everybody’s all fired up about this because, let’s face it, they’re just waiting for someone, anyone from the Trump administration to slip up and make a mistake so they’d have an excuse to lynch them. Now, regardless of the fact that I’m a part of that administration, I’d like it to be clear that, contrary to popular belief – I agree with that. I think we should be scrutinized because we can’t afford to slip up. However, regardless of my personal position on the matter, I can’t help but wonder – are those that are so adamant about finding a flaw in the Trump administration really that objective?”
“Nobody bothered to ask whether or not the increase in costs was in any way, shape or form justified,” Priebus said, and added, “the first thing everybody did, almost by instinct, was to jump out and grab President Trump by the throat and call him a liar. It didn’t even matter that this was not the final version of the bill; all that mattered was bashing on the president some more, whatever the reason. As a matter of fact, I’d say this was the perfect opportunity to see what the state of American politics has really turned into. But, that’s a story for another time. Anyway, let’s get back to the matter at hand. Bottom line, the prices will likely go up, though we still can’t say for sure by how much, but again – you guys aren’t asking the right questions, nobody is.”
“The fact to the matter is, we want everybody to have a healthcare system in place that treats everyone fairly. Even though there are countless problems when it comes to putting that into practice, the biggest challenge by far is allocating the cost in a way that’s proportional to the person’s sickness. Because, when you think about it – that’s the only fair mechanism that we can put in place that will have the effects we’re looking to achieve. So, in reality, the reason why older people should pay 5 times more than they’re paying right now is because the current system isn’t realistic. They are, in fact, 5 times sicker than the rest of the population, which is why they ought to pay more. This is all very simple, grade school math, I don’t get why you guys are struggling with it so much?” Priebus concluded.
