Vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) falsely claimed during Tuesday’s debate that former President Trump “saved” the Affordable Care Act, the latest attempt by Vance and Trump to rewrite the GOP presidential nominee’s record.
Trump “actually implemented some of these regulations when he was president of the United States,” Vance said during the vice presidential debate against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D).
“And I think you can make a really good argument that it salvaged ObamaCare, which was doing disastrously until Donald Trump came along,” Vance continued. “I think this is an important point about President Trump.”
Vance added that Trump “could have destroyed” the law when it “was crushing under the weight of its own regulatory burden and health care costs.” But instead, “he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care.”
The debate was not the first attempt by either man on the Republican ticket to whitewash Trump’s record on health care. In interviews and even during the presidential debate, Vance and Trump have tried to depict Trump as the law’s selfless savior despite his efforts to repeal the law in office.
“ObamaCare was lousy health care, always was. It’s not very good today,” Trump said during September’s debate against Vice President Harris. “I had a choice to make when I was president: Do I save it and make it as good as it can be? Never going to be great. Or do I let it rot? … And I saved it.”
In an interview on “Meet the Press” after the September debate, Vance doubled down on Trump’s characterization.
Vance said Trump “could’ve destroyed” the law but instead he “chose to build upon” it. Trump “protected those 20 million Americans from losing their health coverage … and he actually ensured that a lot of people were able to access coverage for the first time.”
But that isn’t what happened.
During his four years in office, Trump and congressional Republicans repeatedly tried to kill the law. Repealing ObamaCare was a centerpiece of his campaign going into the 2016 election, and Republicans spent much of his first year in the White House trying to find the best way to do it.
The first executive order signed by Trump, just hours after he was sworn into office, directed federal agencies to roll back as much of the law as possible.
“It is the policy of my Administration to seek the prompt repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” it read.
When the GOP-led House passed its version of an ObamaCare repeal bill, Trump and House Republicans celebrated in a Rose Garden ceremony.
But the final Senate repeal bill fell one vote short of passage when then-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) joined GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) to vote against it in a dramatic late-night vote.
When outright repeal didn’t work, Trump worked to undermine the law. He cut millions of dollars in federal funding for outreach and navigators who help people sign up for health coverage. He allowed the sale of short-term plans that didn’t have to comply with the law’s requirements.
Trump’s administration also backed a Texas lawsuit aimed at getting the entire law declared unconstitutional. The Supreme Court eventually rejected the argument.
Vance’s remarks Tuesday provoked swift derision and backlash from Democrats.
“Here’s where being an old guy gives you some history,” Walz quipped in response. “On Day 1, he [Trump] tried to sign an executive order to repeal the ACA. … And he would have repealed the ACA had it not been for the courage of John McCain to save that bill.”
“He must be forgetting that Trump and Senate Republicans tried to kill the ACA until John McCain stopped them,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media.
“Oh please. Now Vance is telling us that Donald Trump saved Obamacare? He spent his entire time as President trying to kill it,” Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) wrote in a post.
“Really weird that Vance can say with a straight face that Trump made the ACA better. He tried every way he could to wipe it out,” former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said, adding that the Ohio senator “has learned how to lie with a straight face.”
