Former President Barack Obama lashed out against the Republican healthcare bill that was finally unveiled to the public after being drafted in secret for weeks.
Obama, who posted his response to the Republican-led effort to repeal what is widely regarded as his signature domestic achievement on Facebook, did not mince his words.
“The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill,” Obama wrote. “It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting healthcare for everybody else.”
The Senate version of the bill proposes heavy cuts to Medicaid funding, gives states the right to weaken protections for pre-existing conditions, temporarily cuts funding to Planned Parenthood, and repeals taxes on wealthier Americans that were used to fund many of the Affordable Care Act’s provisions.
Obama continued:
“Simply put, if there’s a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family—this bill will do you harm. And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.”
Earlier in his response to the Senate bill’s introduction to the public, Obama admitted that repealing the Affordable Care Act has become a “core tenet of the Republican party.” However the former president hoped that senators who are expected to vote on the bill—which could come before the July 4th Congressional recess—“step back and measure what’s really at stake and consider that the rationale for action, on health care or any other issue, must be something more than simply undoing something that Democrats did.”
Obama’s Facebook post generated quite a bit of attention. More than 250,000 people Liked the post with another 78,000 people sharing it as of Thursday evening.
Around 10,000 people commented on Obama’s Facebook post, with many people thanking him for his signature healthcare law and thanking him for their improved health.
You can read the full text of the Senate’s bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act here.