The word “mean,” as used by President Donald Trump, has a new definition.
A couple of weeks ago, Trump used “mean” to describe the American Health Care Act – the House bill passed in May that would take away health insurance from 23 million Americans. Calling it “mean” when the Senate was working on its own version signaled that he favored strong improvements.
Last week, the Senate did come out with its own version, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that it’s only slightly different from the House bill. The CBO said Monday that the Senate bill would take away health insurance from 22 million Americans by 2026, just 1 million fewer than the House version over the same period.
AFSCME Pres. Lee Saunders said the Senate bill, like the House proposal, is “a blueprint to decimate the health care system, to punish the sick, the elderly, the poor and middle-income people. … The evidence is mounting: this bill is a bouquet of flowers for the wealthiest Americans but a punch in the gut for working families.”