Guys, We Think Donald Trump MIGHT NOT Actually Understand Obamacare

Everybody loves their Trump insurance, which complies with the ACA

Donald Trump went on Fox News Tuesday to let us all know he has no idea how the Affordable Care Act works, but he knows it's a failure, because his employees love the insurance plans they have with the Trump Organization. Or maybe all Trump's employees complain that their Obamacare is just terrible, and they all have huge problems with it. Yes, Wut?

Trump apparently has no idea what Obamacare is, or he has no idea what kind of insurance his employees have, or maybe both at the same time, since Trump has never been troubled by cognitive dissonance -- he can believe multiple contradictory things at once, especially if they're all wrong. When Trump spoke to press Tuesday at his Trump National Doral Miami golf club, multiple reporters confirmed he said "All of my employees are having a tremendous problem with Obamacare." So boy oh boy, they hate that Obamacare, with all its problems.

Shortly after his "campaign rally" -- another ad for his wonderful golf resort, really -- where all his employees loved him a whole lot, Trump had a little chat with Bill Hemmer on Fox's "America’s Newsroom" in which he said his employees just love the insurance they get through their jobs at Trump National, because it's so much better than Obamacare. Which he just said they all have tremendous problems with.

</center>CBS News reporter <a href="https: //twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/790927473328422914" target="_blank">Sopan Deb</a> captured the Wait-Didn't-He-Just-Say-The-Opposite dialogue: <p><a href="https://wonkette.substack.com/p/guys-we-think-donald-trump-might-not-actually-understand-obamacare/trump-obamacare-interview" rel="attachment wp-att-607924"><img id="11d44" data-rm-shortcode-id="f2e34ab766cc70bcdd47c516765db206" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" class="rm-shortcode " loading="lazy" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzY3MTc1Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTcyMTMxMjk3Mn0.DBVS4H-RxDMtMAN8PFMXPzNVmB-N-xr9fO49ws6EcvM/img.jpg?width=980" /></a> </p><p>Huh. So they've all got great insurance AND they have tremendous problems with their Obamacare? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbHtzqCge_8" target="_blank">Norman! Please coordinate!</a> We know we just made a joke in an <a href="https://wonkette.substack.com/p/donald-trump-demands-obama-look-at-his-tape-what-tape-you-know-that-tape" target="_blank">earlier post</a> about "Schrödinger's Ballot Box," but we can only conclude that either Trump's employees exist in a quantum state where they simultaneously have employer-provided insurance (which they love) <strong>and</strong> cruddy old Obamacare (which they hate), or Donald Trump is a fecking eejit who has no idea what he's talking about. </p><p>We're going to go with the latter, since none of the Doral employees appear to be winking in and out of existence. And also because <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-nonsense-on-obamacare_us_580f6a39e4b0a03911eec257" target="_blank">Huffington Post notes</a> that Trump National Doral Miami employees actually <em>do</em> have pretty decent insurance, "so there’s no way 'all' the people who work there are having 'problems' with Obamacare." </p><p>So apparently Trump managed to say something true during the day -- his employees like their insurance, at least. Or if they don't, they're complaining about the company plan. </p><p>And as Karoli Kuns <a href="http://crooksandliars.com/2016/10/donald-trump-proves-himself-fool-i-dont" target="_blank">points out</a> at Crooks & Liars, one reason the employees' plans are so good "is because of the consumer protections baked into the ACA." </p><p>But wait! Doesn't the ACA need to be repealed and replaced with <a href="https://wonkette.substack.com/p/donald-trump-will-repeal-obamacare-replace-it-with-terrific-fence" target="_blank">"something terrific,"</a> since the <a href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/10/25/msnbc-s-ali-velshi-throws-cold-water-obamacare-freakout-premium-increases-were-predicted-2009/214091" target="_blank">average price of the individual plans</a> on the exchanges is going up this year -- about as much as the Congressional Budget Office predicted it would in 2009? Well, for one thing, subsidies that help people buy coverage <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/10/24/499190020/rates-rise-again-for-obamacare-health-plans-but-so-do-subsidies" target="_blank">are <em>also</em> going up.</a> </p><p>Now, this doesn't mean the exchanges are perfect and awesome -- like every program, Obamacare needs <a href="https://wonkette.substack.com/p/bill-clinton-clarifies-he-never-had-hate-sex-with-obamacare" target="_blank">tweaks, not dynamiting.</a> Like adjustments to the subsidies for individual plans to make them more affordable to people with lower incomes, especially in states where Republicans refused Medicaid expansion. A public option would be an excellent idea, too. And wouldn't you know it, that crazy Hillary Clinton wants to <em>fix </em>those problems, instead of throwing the whole thing out, leaving millions of people with no insurance again, and getting rid of the consumer protections the ACA put in place. </p><p>Yes, we know, it would be a lot better to scrap everything and start again, since people really <em>miss</em> being denied coverage for preexisting conditions. </p><p>[<a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/10/25/fox-anchor-lets-trump-lie-about-obamacare-proving-he-doesnt-understand-it-either/214096" target="_blank">MediaMatters</a> / <a href="https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/790927473328422914" target="_blank">Sopan Deb</a> on Twitter /<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-nonsense-on-obamacare_us_580f6a39e4b0a03911eec257" target="_blank"> HuffPo</a> / <a href="http://crooksandliars.com/2016/10/donald-trump-proves-himself-fool-i-dont" target="_blank">Crooks & Liars</a>]</p>