Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wasted no time fact-checking President Donald Trump's profoundly dishonest OpEd in Wednesday's USA Today.
"I took a look at your op-ed, @realDonaldTrump. It needs some work," Schumer tweeted. "All of the false and misleading words in the world can’t cover up how your administration and Republicans in Congress are forcing millions of Americans to pay more for health care."
Below are Schumer's corrections:
Trump's op-ed was a targeted attack on Democrats for their embrace of Medicare for all, which Trump claimed would harm seniors and end Medicare as we know it.
Trump's claims that Democrats seek to demolish the safety net for seniors are false. In truth, Medicare for all would cost trillions of dollars less than our current employer-based system and would cut out the middlemen - private insurers - leaving medical decisions between patients and doctors.
The Medicare for All Act of 2017, championed by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), ensures comprehensive coverage for all Americans, including an expansion of Medicaid for additional services beneficial to seniors.
These include hospice care, rehabilitation services, long-term nursing care, and mental health treatment.
Additionally, Trump's assertion that Medicare would be weakened by extending it to everyone falls far short of the truth. The Medicare for All Act specifically offers more benefits than the current system allows, thus eliminating the need for private supplemental plans.
Trump and the Republicans have sought to weaken the protections provided in the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare; efforts, analyses show, that have actually caused premiums to spike.
"As for premiums, they have continued to increase on average, just at a lower rate than in the past," The Washington Post noted. "But experts say that without Trump’s moves to weaken the Affordable Care Act, premiums would be even lower in many states."
Schumer's overall point was that Trump's remarks are simply not true. And the president doesn't seem to know or care that Medicare is a government-run health care system.
Needless to say, Twitter was here for Schumer's snarky fact-check (something USA Today should have done in the first place.)
The president's unchecked lies are tiresome.
