The House Speaker wants Obamacare dead. The House Budget Chairman — a leading candidate for HHS secretary — wants Medicare reform. But all the focus on Republicans' health strategies is ignoring the biggest elephant in the room: Donald Trump, a president-elect who's spent more than a year bucking congressional Republicans — and may not share their priorities, two leading conservative thinkers tell POLITICO's "Pulse Check" podcast.
"For all the times that the president-elect has expressed his desire to repeal and replace Obamacare … [he] campaigned on universal coverage," said Avik Roy of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity. "That's a very different set of principles … than you might expect from a generic Republican president-elect."
"I think he was a third-party candidate who ran with the Republican party," Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum added. "He's an independent."
Nevertheless, Trump’s election has raised expectations of repeal among the GOP base — and empowered advocates of repeal on Capitol Hill, who are already working on the mechanics of getting it done.
Trump's arguably the most unpredictable politician ever elected to the presidency. Yet he’s been surprisingly constant on one health policy priority: Coverage expansion. That stance dates back nearly two decades — "We must have universal health care," Trump wrote in a 2000 book. "I'm a conservative on most issues but a liberal on this one" — and continued through the entire 2016 campaign talking about the need to cover people.
"For all the times that the president-elect has expressed his desire to repeal and replace Obamacare … [he] campaigned on universal coverage," said Avik Roy of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity. "That's a very different set of principles … than you might expect from a generic Republican president-elect."
"I think he was a third-party candidate who ran with the Republican party," Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum added. "He's an independent."
Nevertheless, Trump’s election has raised expectations of repeal among the GOP base — and empowered advocates of repeal on Capitol Hill, who are already working on the mechanics of getting it done.
Trump's arguably the most unpredictable politician ever elected to the presidency. Yet he’s been surprisingly constant on one health policy priority: Coverage expansion. That stance dates back nearly two decades — "We must have universal health care," Trump wrote in a 2000 book. "I'm a conservative on most issues but a liberal on this one" — and continued through the entire 2016 campaign talking about the need to cover people.
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