Joe Biden vows to ‘undo Trump’s damage’ on healthcare
Even the left-leaning New York Times has criticised the dizzying speed of the rollout of new executive orders each day.
Joe Biden has pledged to “undo the damage” that Donald Trump did to the Affordable Care Act as health care took centre stage in the latest raft of executive orders signed by the new president.
The dizzying speed of the rollout of new executive orders each day in the president’s first full week in office has attracted growing criticism from Republicans and even the left-leaning New York Times.
Since becoming president, Mr Biden has signed more than 25 executive orders on topics including climate change, immigration, the economy and the coronavirus amongst others.
On Friday (AEDT) he added health care to that list, taking measures to strengthen Barack Obama’s signature ACA after Mr Trump sought to weaken it following Mr Trump’s failure to get the legislation repealed.
“There’s nothing new that we’re doing here other than restoring the Affordable Care Act and restoring Medicaid to the way it was before Trump became president,” Mr Biden said as he signed the directives in the Oval Office.
He said his aim was to “undo the damage Trump has done.”
His orders will have the effect of lowering the barriers to access Medicaid while also expanding access to the benefits under the ACA.
Mr Biden also signed a separate order to protect reproductive rights and expand access to abortion as part of efforts to reverse Mr Trump’s push to restrict access to legal abortion in the US.
Republicans are growing more angry each day with Mr Biden’s move to use numerous executive orders to unwind Mr Trump’s legacy.
Mr Biden’s unveiling this week of an ambitious climate change agenda which would undermine fossil fuel industries infuriated Republicans from fossil-fuel rich states.
Republican attorneys general have joined forces to warned the president not to exceed his authority through executive actions.
West Virginia Attorney-General Patrick Morrisey, who represented six state attorneys general, said Mr Biden’s climate plan was “much more radical” than that of Mr Obama. “The president is really taking a wrecking ball to many of the states that have oil, gas, coal, manufacturing jobs” he said.
More broadly, Florida Senator Marco Rubio says that so far in his presidency, “President Biden is using the words of the centre, talking about unity. But he’s governing from the far left.”
Even the liberal New York Times took a swipe at Mr Biden on Friday with an editorial headlined: “Ease up on the Executive Actions Joe.”
“This is no way to make law,” the editorial said. “A polarised, narrowly divided Congress may offer Mr Biden little choice but to employ executive actions or see his entire agenda held hostage. These directives, however, are a flawed substitute for legislation …[T]hey are not meant to serve as an end run around the will of Congress. By design, such actions are more limited in what they can achieve than legislation, and presidents who overreach invite intervention by the courts.”
The White House hit back, with communications director Kate Bedingfield tweeting: “As the NYT ed board criticises President Biden for taking swift executive action to reverse the most egregious actions of the Trump Admin, I can’t help but recall that during the primary they encouraged voters to consider what a president could accomplish through exec Action. So my question is which actions that the President took to reverse Donald Trump’s executive orders would they have liked to see him not pursue?”
As the NYT ed board criticizes President Biden this am for taking swift executive action to reverse the most egregious actions of the Trump Admin, I can’t help but recall that during the primary they encouraged voters to consider what a president could accomplish through exec 1/
— Kate Bedingfield (@WHCommsDir) January 28, 2021
Action. So my question is which actions that the President took to reverse Donald Trump’s executive orders would they have liked to see him not pursue? /2
— Kate Bedingfield (@WHCommsDir) January 28, 2021
Meanwhile Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed that Democrats would conduct a Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump rather than merely seek a censure of him.
Her comments came after Democrat senator Tim Kaine floated alternatives to a trial after it became clear that Democrats would not secure the votes needed to convict the former president.
“This trial is about the protection of the Constitution and the preservation of our republic,’ Ms Pelosi said. “No one is above the law … Trump must be tried and convicted to ensure that no future president will ever think it’s okay to incite insurrection.”
The Senate is due to begin Mr Trump’s impeachment trial on February 9.
Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has moved to repair his relationship with Mr Trump after the two fell out over Mr Trump’s role in inciting his supporters ahead of the Capitol riots on January 6.
Mr McCarthy angered the former president when he said that Mr Trump “bears responsibility” for the insurrection at the Capitol. But Mr McCarthy visited Mr Trump at his Florida resort of Mar-a-Lago Friday in an attempt to repair the relationship.
Mr Trump and his aides have been plotting revenge against those Republicans who attacked him for his role in the Capitol riots.
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